A brief digression

I want to extend my best wishes to anyone/everyone who lives in the central Gulf Coast region in general, and the New Orleans area in particular, as you face down Hurricane Katrina.

The latest reports put the storm's strength at the threshold of a Category 5 storm. The central pressure is at 906mb, which is one of the lowest readings ever recorded.

New Orleans sits at 6 feet below sea level, protected by levees and floodwalls. None of these were designed to deal with an extreme storm of this nature. The extent to which it will be affected by storm surges is yet to be seen, but the impacts are expected to be fairly major. The city is under a mandatory evacuation order, and people were lining up outside of the Louisiana Superdome, an official storm shelter, hours before it was opened by the mayor.

Everyone keep New Orleans in your thoughts. The next 36 hours are going to be a wild time in the old town.