Hurricane Season in New Orleans

Hurricane season is a very strange time in New Orleans. Before Hurricane Katrina, we were an almost arrogant people, ones who defied the hurricane Gods to blow our way. In just the year before Katrina, we watched as Hurricane Ivan turned at the gates and headed toward Mississippi.

Now, we are a panicky people. Every strong gust of wind that blows in the ocean is greeted with a watchful eye. For six months out of the year, we go from being firemen, lawyers and accountants to padding our resumes with “amateur meteorologist”. A trip to Burget King is more likely to yield advice on high pressure systems and prevailing currents than it is ketchup packets.

It’s a strange ritual in the “New” New Orleans. We sit around, anxiously waiting for updates from the National Hurricane Center, making note of even the slightest shift in tracking or forecasting. If the forecast doesn’t reach land, we trace the line with our finger, trying to see by hand what billion-dollar computers can’t, the future.

It is an exercise in futility and we know it. For one, the hurricanes never stay on their track. Katrina, for example, overshot its original estimations by at least a time zone. Second, even if the storm did follow its “predestined” track, there would be nothing we could do about it. Read more