As we reel from the images of the horrific destruction wroght by Hurricane Katrina along the Central Gulf Coast and inland as she moves across Eastern North America, it appears likely that this will be one of the greatest disasters to befall the United States in its history. With the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington DC fast approaching, I believe that what we are now witnessing unfold in the Mississippi Delta may very well be a worse disaster than 11 September for our nation.
The reports coming from metropolitan New Orleans are horrific. The governor has announced that plans have begun to evacuate the residents of New Orleans (if I am hearing correctly). The entire coast of Mississippi is wiped out, with widespread damage as far as the Florida panhandle. Millions of people have been directly affected by this disaster, and the economic impact of Katrina could feasibly derail the slow, anemic economic growth, especially if the damage to oil refining capacity and oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico is as severe as seems likely.
On 11 September 2001 a criminal conspiracy killed almost 2900 people, destroyed a major structure and caused a collective social panic that has transformed America in the eyes of the into a hyperaggresive unilateralist. While the direct death toll from Katrina may not surpass 11 September, the number of people whose lives are going to be direclty dislocated is likely to be much much greater. A major urban center has been rendered, at least temporarily, uninhabitable. I do not want to minimize the tragedy of 11 September, but I fear that Katrina will indeed overshadow the impact of 11 September on the nation in terms of the economy.
On Sunday afternoon I wrote a diary arguing that the destruction caused by Katrina could become a turning point in the history of the Bush presidency much as 11 September was. (see http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/28/171318/055 ) We now know that the damage wrought by Katrina and its aftermath has turned out to be almost as dire as was feared. Fellow Kossaks, I believe we are at another turning point in our history as a nation.