NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, September 9. DURING the past week, many of us have been glued to the newspaper or television, learning more and more about the devastation that Hurricane Katrina brought to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The rebuilding that awaits the impacted areas is difficult to fathom, although this much is fact: Any contributions that individuals can make to organizations lending support to the victims of the hurricane are helpful.
To put the situation in New Orleans into a different light, consider the following statistics. According to the Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday, the 37 permanent pumps in New Orleans are handling volume that equates to 432 Olympic-sized swimming pools per hour. More than 100 additional pumps were expected to go into use.