"a city that, for all relevant purposes, is now gone"

An hour ago I was planning on posting something about the recovery & reconstruction of New Orleans, and how the logistical challenges will probably be better compared with railroad and canal construction than (say) the Hurricane Andrew cleanup.

Then I turned on CNN for half an hour, and it's pretty clear that at the moment, those challenges are minor and/or irrelevant compared to the logistical challenge of what amounts to a massive refugee crisis on our own continent.

I'll be fascinated to see how New Orleans is drained and decontaminated, and also how America will absorb roughly a million people of wildly varying needs (and employability). But at the moment, I'm really just hoping those babies get some milk.

You can donate to the Canadian Red Cross here; my family certainly will be.