doomed to repeat it

You've heard what happens to people who pay no attention to history.

CNN's web site has a list of the ten deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history. Two of them hit Louisiana. The "Grand Isle Hurricane" of 1909 had a death toll of "at least" 350. It came ashore between Baton Rouge and New Orleans with a 15-foot storm surge that inundated much of southern Louisiana. Six years later, another storm caused Lake Pontchartrain to overflow its banks, inflicting a death toll of 275 people. CNN's comment includes this observation, obviously written before Katrina: "That scenario is one that hurricane experts don't like to ponder because if the city, surrounded on three sides by water, is hit by a major hurricane, the storm surge might inundate the city."

Number one and number ten on the list were hurricanes that hit Galveston, in 1900 and 1915. Galveston had constructed a seawall after the devastation of the 1900 hurricane. Still, 275 people died when the 1915 storm hit.

All four of these hurricanes were Category 4. Katrina was a Category 4 storm. Rita, a Category 4 storm, is headed for Texas.

Why do we not take these things seriously during normal weather? Why don't we remind ourselves that it wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark?