New Orleans...what next?

I've tried to avoid writing about the situation going on in New Orleans for some time now, because quite frankly it seems like the trendy blogger thing to do, but it's all that I hear on the radio and TV (obviously), so I wanted to put some of my thoughts out there.

I'm not gonna bash the government and say that they are doing a bad job, because I'm sure they are doing all that they can, and who am I or who is anyone for that matter, to judge what "too slow" is. This is a catastrophe so extreme, how does one gauge how fast you are supposed to act to therefore come up with the conclusion that the government is acting too slow? Bush is there now, military presence is either there or on their way, so things are moving forward.

What I want to know is, how do they plan to fix this situation? I mean, you have a giant city under what appears to be 10-30 feet of water. I understand that new levies can be built and you can then pump out the water, but where do you put that water??? That water has dead people floating in it, god knows how much sewage backed up into it, all sorts of waste and shit from all the industrial places that got flooded, plus who knows what else. You can't just shoot that back out to the other side of the levy, can you?

And then, once you do get the water out, what do you have left behind? I've drained pools that have been sitting with filthy water (not even close to what the water must be like in New Orleans) and let me tell you, the sludge left behind from that is gross. I don't even want to imagine what it's gonna smell like. And the buildings? Do they just demolish the whole city and start from scratch? Most of the buildings were probably fucked up by the initial surge of water, but I'm sure what that initial surge didn't hurt, the sitting in water did.

It's just so amazing to me the extent of damage that occurred here, and I am interested to see how things progress over the next few months....hell, years. This is seriously an event of biblical proportions and almost seems a bit too biblical:

The city of sin and debauchery has itself washed clean by the hand of God and His mighty waters.

No, that's not a real biblical quote, I just made it up, but doesn't it seem like it could be? Or a Nostradomus prediction?

On a more sensitive note, my heart goes out to all those people who are now without their homes, their livelihood and perhaps their loved ones. I have made a donation to the Red Cross and I hope that everyone out there will do some small part to help.