A Disaster Worse than Katrina

This Brookings Institute opinion piece takes a look at this BP oil disaster's potential impact to Louisiana. It's a pretty comprehensive report and the outlook isn't too good. It hints that ground zero for making sure this region survives, is to clean up the coast and marshlands, that is the most vital commodity that feeds the economy of the entire region.

www.brookings.edu

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, now deemed the worst in American history, may inflict more damage to the future of New Orleans than Hurricane Katrina.

In a matter of days, Katrina and the levee failure wiped out the physical and social fabric of many communities. Across the Gulf Coast, more than 1 million people were displaced from their homes and another estimated 1,400 persons lost their lives to the disaster. In New Orleans, the severe flooding destroyed more than 134,000 homes, wreaked havoc to public and private infrastructure, disrupted businesses, and severed generations of family and community ties that held many neighborhoods together.

But this protracted oil spill disaster could undermine the basic economic purpose of the New Orleans metro area and threaten its very existence.

This does not touch on the impact should the spill reach the gulf current and get swept around Florida and up the Eastern seaboard let's hope that it never gets to that point.

It will get to that point. This will not just affect New Orleans or Lousianna. Unfortunately I think that this is the disaster we've all been afraid of. It's a sneaky one, but will affect us for years. I think it will be the basis for other collapses as well. Sometimes the beginning of really bad times don't come with a huge bang, or fireworks. It sneaks in with the tide....

As an engineer and an inventor, who thought of the idea of the IPAD almost 30 years ago, I recommend that since most ships run off of diesel engines which can burn pretty much anything, they create a means of scooping the oil off the surface of the oceans , filtering it, and mixing it with diesel to fuel their ship's engines.

Kind of along that philosophy of When life gives you lemons , Make Lemonade !