I’ve been holding off on blogging about Katrina because I didn’t know what to say. My heart goes out to all of the thousands of people who’ve lost their homes, who are facing looting and chaos, and who may have lost a loved one. But there’s nothing I can say that pictures and news stories and other blogs haven’t already said, and better. So I’m just going to clip a little scrapbook here of Katrina related material.

First off, I hear a lot of comments about the looting. I hear some people talk about how we need to “shoot looters on sight”. What, even people with kids who have no homes or food and are raiding grocery stores for food, water, diapers and medicine? How enlightened. I guess if those “looters” didn’t want to get shot, they would’ve made the right choices in their life to be richer than they are so they could have evacuated sooner, right?

Just who are these “looters” in some people’s minds? Let’s see what a “looter” is according to the photos and captions in the mainstream media:

Well, that should make shooting the “looters” a whole lot easier. Don’t fire until you see the black of their skin.

Gas prices are surging, especially in areas in the South, where there are mile-long gas lines and some stations are just plain running out…

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Gasoline prices spiked as high as $5 a gallon in some areas Thursday as consumers fearing a gas shortage raced to the pumps.

Drivers in Atlanta said stations were charging well over $3 a gallon for regular unleaded, and at least one station in Stockbridge, Ga., was charging customers $5.87 a gallon.

The price hikes were felt nationwide, with gasoline surging to $3.59 in Boston, $3.58 in Milwaukee and well above $3 in parts of New York.

I guess there are some 30-1 bettors who’ve just made some money on that. Seems quaint that 21 days ago, I was pondering whether gas would hit $3; now they’re telling us $4 is around the corner:

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Consumers can expect retail gas prices to rise to $4 a gallon soon, but whether they stay there depends on the long-term damage to oil facilities from Hurricane Katrina, oil and gas analysts said Wednesday.

“There’s no question gas will hit $4 a gallon,” Ben Brockwell, director of pricing at the Oil Price Information Service, said. “The question is how high will it go and how long will it last?”

“Consumers haven’t seen the worst of it yet,” Brockwell said.

In a research note, [chief economist at Global Insight Nariman] Behravesh laid out a worst-case scenario that puts average prices for regular unleaded gasoline at about $3.50 a gallon for the next four to six months.

“The impact on consumer spending in such a scenario would be very dramatic, cutting the growth rate by as much as 3 percent and pushing real GDP growth in the fourth quarter closer to zero,” he wrote.

Just a couple of months ago I was watching this show on F/X called “The Oil Storm”. In the faux documentary, the primary oil refinery areas of New Orleans are hit by a Category 6 hurricane. Then, when the Saudis pledge to open up the spigots to get more oil to the US, the Muslim extremists begin sabotaging pipelines and exploding bombs in shopping malls. US troops are sent to secure the oil fields. Finally, with all the tanker shipments being rerouted through Houston’s narrow straits, there’s a tanker collision which takes out our secondary refinery areas. gas tops $8/gallon, many New Englanders without heating oil freeze to death, and panic grips the nation.

I like my science fiction to remain fictional, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, efforts to evacuate New Orleans and the temporary emergency shelter of the Superdome are beset by mob violence, gunshots fired at helicopters, and far too few police or National Guard to control the situation.

NEW ORLEANS – This city spiraled into chaos Thursday as thousands of desperate residents begged for help and rising tension from the desperate situation led to fights, fires and fears for the safety of emergency responders.

“We are out here like pure animals. We don’t have help,” the Rev. Issac Clark, 68, said outside the New Orleans Convention Center, complaining that he and hundreds of others were evacuated, taken to the convention hall by bus, dropped off and given nothing.

“There’s so many people there. It’s a desperate situation with no air conditioning and no water,” Louisiana National Guard Lt. Col. Pete Schneider said of the Superdome.

[T]he airborne evacuation was disrupted after at least one shot was reported fired at a military helicopter. An air ambulance service official said helicopter transfers of the sick and injured were suspended as a result.

[T]he National Guard told him that it was sending 100 military police officers to gain control. “That’s not enough,” Zuschlag. “We need a thousand.”

Medics were calling him and crying for help because they were so scared of people with guns at the Superdome, he added.

Police were asking residents to give up any firearms before they evacuated neighborhoods because officers desperately needed the firepower [Sure, right, I’m evacuating into an area of uncontrolled chaos and you want to take my gun?]: Some officers who had been stranded on the roof of a hotel said they were shot at.

Nagin called for an all-out evacuation of the city’s remaining residents. Asked how many people died, he said: “Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands.”

So, faced with the worst natural disaster in this American century, the second-worst emergency situation after 9/11, where was our leader? Surely President Bush didn’t spend seven minutes reading “My Pet Goat”, warned for days ahead of time that what was originally thought to be an even worse hurricane was headed for New Orleans. After all, it’s not like the hurricane struck by surprise, a la 9/11; there was at least a week’s warning from the moment Katrina whipped through Florida…

Katrina in Action	Our President inaction
Hurricane Katrina is predicted to hit New orleans by early Monday Morning, as a higher category storm than it actually turned out to be.	President Bush continues his five-week vacation, assuring the world he can do his job just fine from his ranch in Crawford (To be fair, this is an old photo, not from Aug 28. But when you’ve seen one ranch photo, you’ve seen them all.)
Residents prepare for the onslaught by boarding up their homes, and evacuating… if they can.
An elderly woman is evacuated from the flooded neighborhood following Katrina’s landfall.	President Bush shares a 69th birthday cake for Senator John McCain as he lands in Arizona to stump for his Medicare proposals.
An aerial view of the devastation in the American South.	President Bush takes some time off to work on his golf game at the El Pueblo Mirage Golf & RV Resort (Again, to be fair, this photo isn’t from Aug 29, since there were no photos allowed to be taken at the private golf course.)
Refugees from the flooding in New Orleans move a downed power line as they flee.	President Bush commemorates the 60th Anniversary of VJ Day in San Diego
The shattered face of the Hilton Hotel looks as if a major bomb blast had hit it.	President Bush receives a guitar from a country music star… while still on vacation.
A five-week-old infant is evacuated from the Superdome.	President Bush finally calls off his vacation — two days early — and flies over the devastated American South.

I’m beginning to sense a lot of red states turning blue… and not just from the floodwaters.