katrina and the ants

this morning, hurricane katrina narrowly missed making landfall directly on top of new orleans, although it certainly did its fair share of damage to the city and the surrounding areas, and then raged on into mississippi.

city officials turned the sports stadium into a makeshift shelter “for those who are too sick or too poor to leave the city.” TOO POOR TO LEAVE THE CITY IN THE FACE OF IMPENDNG DISASTER???? WTF???

how sick is that, that your income level determines whether you are able to get out of the path of a fucking hurricane??

however, as it happened, the stadium wasn’t THAT great of a shelter. part of the roof was torn off as the storm passed over. guess it was better than nothing, though.

an official from the public health research center in louisiana said of the storm:

“So, imagine you’re the poor person who decides not to evacuate: Your house will disintegrate around you. The best you’ll be able to do is hang on to a light pole, and while you’re hanging on, the fire ants from all the mounds — of which there is two per yard on average — will clamber up that same pole. And, eventually, the fire ants will win.” 

i have to say i had never thought of that possibility, and now i can’t get the grisly visual out of my head.