Katrina+2

The situation in New Orleans is not improving. After a levee break early today two to three blocks long, the New Orleans’ mayor asked helicopter crews to reinforce the levee by dropping additional sandbags from helicopters. Unfortunately, the helicopters did not receive this message and the water has been pouring into the city all day. It appears that a pumping station in the area will soon be inundated and fail (and as of 12:00 AM CDT, may have already failed) and the flooding will be even worse by dawn.

WWL-TV of New Orleans has its own blog, giving updates on the aftermath of the storm as they become available.

The country is providing help to the Gulf area as quickly as possible for the benefit of the unfortunate people caught up in this tragedy. At the same time, however, people are also looking at how this event will impact in their local areas.

Both the Miami Herald and Tampa Tribune report that Florida power companies are asking their customers to conserve electricity as much as possible in the next few days. Florida generates approximately 40% of its electricity from natural gas, and Florida’s natural gas comes from Louisiana.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution predicts that there will be $3 per gallon gasoline in the Atlanta area by the weekend, and shortages will occur. Atlanta normally has about 10 days of fuel in reserve at any time, but the pipeline from Louisiana with new fuel is shut down. After two days, Atlanta has about eight days of fuel left.

Gasoline is already in short supply in Mississippi. The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports on long lines at gas stations in central Mississippi.

We in the Midwest are not immediately affected by this from an economic viewpoint (emotionally, it's very serious to all of us). Most newspapers here are not speculating on economic effects at this time. The Des Moines Register says that if the fuel supply can be from the Gulf can be restored quickly, we should be able to avoid $3 per gallon gasoline in Iowa. However, the more I hear from the Gulf, the more unlikely that fuel supplies will return to normal soon.

The Houston Chronicle reports on companies and activities that will profit from the recovery efforts. I suppose that somebody has to.

Finally, Bob Hill of the Louisville Courier-Journal shares a joke while writing about the excessive addiction to oil in this country. “Two blondes/Kentucky governors/newspaper columnists (pick one) were pumping gas at a service station, and one says to the other, "I bet these awful gas prices are going to go even higher."

To which the other replies: "Won't affect me; I always put in just $10 worth."