Hurricanes and Louisiana
Hurricane Katrina has my beloved home state of Louisiana and my favorite city of New Orleans in her cross-hairs.
Betsy came through and hit New Orleans on September 9, 1965.
On August 17th and 18th, 1969, the worst storm to ever hit the continental United States landed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Her name was Camille.
Betsy was blamed for 75 deaths in the United States, which ranks it 18th among the deadliest U.S. storms from 1900 through at least September 2003. The only storm to kill more people in the USA since 1965 was Camille, with 256 deaths in 1969.
What those statistics do not tell are the other casualties which result from storms like these.
In addition to the weather-related casualties, there are the dangers from contamination of the water supply from raw sewage and chemicals, as well as the threat of poisonous snakes.
Most everyone knows there is a good deal of low-lying wetlands in Louisiana, particularly around the coast. With a semi-tropical climate, the state is host to a variety of poisonous snakes which seek high ground in order to escape not only the rising waters, but the salt water of the storm surge.
As odd as it sounds, after each of the major hurricanes of Betsy and Camille, there were hundreds of deaths due to snakes because the freshwater snakes seek high ground, just as humans do, to escape the salt water. In contests between humans and snakes over small pieces of dry ground, the snakes win.
Surviving the storm itself is only one of the major dangers these people face.
My thoughts and prayers are with all.
Betsy came through and hit New Orleans on September 9, 1965.
On August 17th and 18th, 1969, the worst storm to ever hit the continental United States landed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Her name was Camille.
Betsy was blamed for 75 deaths in the United States, which ranks it 18th among the deadliest U.S. storms from 1900 through at least September 2003. The only storm to kill more people in the USA since 1965 was Camille, with 256 deaths in 1969.
What those statistics do not tell are the other casualties which result from storms like these.
In addition to the weather-related casualties, there are the dangers from contamination of the water supply from raw sewage and chemicals, as well as the threat of poisonous snakes.
Most everyone knows there is a good deal of low-lying wetlands in Louisiana, particularly around the coast. With a semi-tropical climate, the state is host to a variety of poisonous snakes which seek high ground in order to escape not only the rising waters, but the salt water of the storm surge.
As odd as it sounds, after each of the major hurricanes of Betsy and Camille, there were hundreds of deaths due to snakes because the freshwater snakes seek high ground, just as humans do, to escape the salt water. In contests between humans and snakes over small pieces of dry ground, the snakes win.
Surviving the storm itself is only one of the major dangers these people face.
My thoughts and prayers are with all.
posted by Feisty at 9:47 AM
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