Transcript: The City in a Bowl (NOW w/ B. Moyers on hurricane hitting NO)

[girl gone mad]

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_neworleans.html

I watched this show a couple of years ago and I thought they did a good job of explaining just why a direct hit on New Orleans has the potential for such devastation and how it came to be that way.

Also, it's clear from the closing question that the President and congress have once again been warned of a potential threat, and once again have chosen to do absolutely nothing.

DANIEL ZWERDLING: Do you think that the President of the United States and Congress understand that people like you and the scientists studying this think the city of New Orleans could very possibly disappear?

WALTER MAESTRI:I think they know that, I think that they've been told that. I don't know that anybody, though, psychologically, you know has come to grips with that as-- as a-- a potential real situation. Just like none of us could possibly come to grips with the loss of the World Trade Center. And it's still hard for me to envision that it's gone. You know and it's impossible for someone like me to think that the French Quarter of New Orleans could be gone.