Now they tell us

DHS/Ready.gov National Preparedness Month is a nationwide effort held each September to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses and schools. National Preparedness Month 2005 is being co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the American Red Cross. Throughout September, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the American Red Cross will work with a wide variety of organizations, including local, state and federal government agencies and the private sector, to highlight the importance of emergency preparedness and promote individual involvement through events and activities across the nation.

It gets better, or maybe just more ridiculous...

Houston Chronicle c/o LSU Hurricane Center

KEEPING ITS HEAD ABOVE WATER
New Orleans faces doomsday scenario
Copyright 2001

New Orleans is sinking. And its main buffer from a hurricane, the protective Mississippi River delta, is quickly eroding away, leaving the historic city perilously close to disaster.

So vulnerable, in fact, that earlier this year the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked the potential damage to New Orleans as among the three likeliest, most castastrophic disasters facing this country.

The other two? A massive earthquake in San Francisco, and, almost prophetically, a terrorist attack on New York City.

The New Orleans hurricane scenario may be the deadliest of all...

An earthquake in LA, a terrorist attack in NYC, a hurricane centered in the Gulf. FEMA was warning about these as early as April 2001 as part of their assessment and preparedness process. Levees in NOLA were so worrisome the Corps of Engineers was crying for money the last 3 hurricane seasons, and promptly saw their budgets for Southeast Louisiana cut sharply each of those years. Comedy or tragedy, take your pick.