It's a sign. Katrina and Rita are saying, "Don't live in the delta of the Mississippi." It has always been a hazard waiting to happen... well... it is now happening. So, move, permanently. The hurricane season lasts through November. Katrina and Rita may not be the end of the message. Listen. Hear. Act.

Rita's legacy does not end with landfall. The storm is expected to sit for a while over Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Besides the tornado activity that area will see, the rivers in that region feed the Mississippi River. Gulf waters and lakes have been instrumental in the flooding so far, but when all that rain falls over those states and flows into the Mississippi, there will be river flooding too. And, when the southern section of the Mississippi floods, it backs up to the north, flooding that area, even up into the Ohio River.

Water. We are going to see more water and it isn't going to just drain away anymore. The shape of the Mississippi River Valley is changing. It will broaden from the delta northward almost to St Louis. The Mississippi Embayment will eventually be a northern extension of the Gulf of Mexico. People who stubbornly choose to stay in that area, or move back there, will ultimately be lost. The messages are clear already but they will get louder and stronger until there is no longer a choice. This is what I see.

I'm not the only one who sees the water rising. Although the EPA and IPCC want to blame it all on global warming, and I don't, they are at least looking at the impact. Regardless of why it happens, it is going to happen, it IS happening.



"Melting of polar ice and land-based glaciers is expected to contribute to a 1/2 ft to 3ft sea level rise within this century. Shrinking ice caps also cause changes in ocean circulation and storm tracks. To be sure, not all of the melting currently occurring is due to global warming." (Correct, it's just adding to a natural cycle.)

Incidentally, I think that map and the guesstimates on sea level rise are very conservative.

People who choose to live in those red zones are choosing to be flooded out, year after year, until they move or drown. That's just how it is. I guess we should reserve some posthumous Darwin awards for them.