It
was a Ripley’s "Believe It or Not!" moment.
Looking out the window of a fifteenth-floor condominium at
One River Place on New Orleans’s East Bank on August
29, 2005, I witnessed a stunning aberration. Just below me,
the whitecapped Mississippi River was roaring backward—northward—due
to Hurricane Katrina’s wrath. Earlier that morning
I had left my Uptown home and evacuated vertically to this
supposed safe haven. Now, as I gazed at the churning river,
my miscalculation was evident. A few minutes later I took
my wife and two young children to the crowded lobby, where
a sense of panic ensued. A lone generator flickered on and
off, while children huddled around a small refrigerator where
baby bottles were stored. MORE>
