Word: gulf
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...will be important "to consider the safety of the citizens first." In contrast, President George W. Bush, in his televised address the day before, assured the nation that he had ordered his Cabinet to come up with a rebuilding plan for New Orleans and the rest of the devastated Gulf region...
...city built by rumrunners and slave traders and pirates was never going to play by anyone's rules or plan for the future. So as Katrina, wicked and flirtatious, lingered in the Gulf with her eye on the town, many citizens decided they would stay, stubborn or stoic or too poor to have much choice. As for the ones packing up to go, disaster officials told them to take a look around before they left, because it might never look the same again...
Louisiana staggered under the blow, but others all along the Gulf Coast were ravaged as Katrina, still spitting tornadoes and spraying wood and shingles and glass, made her way slowly up to Canada to die at last. A sudden twirl coming ashore meant that the Mississippi coast got smacked the hardest. In many towns, what the winds spared the floods claimed, as the gusts flung water into the streets in storm surges as high as 25 ft. "It was like the houses were playing bumper cars around here," said Biloxi fisherman Alan Layne. There were cemetery coffins tossed around...
Hindsight is 20/20. But once in a rare while, foresight is too. For years, researchers have described exactly what would happen if a megahurricane hit New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf region. They predicted that the city levees would not hold. Their elaborate computer models showed that tens of thousands would be left behind. They described rooftop rescues, 80% of New Orleans underwater and "toxic gumbo" purling through the streets. If experts had prophesied a terrorist attack with that kind of accuracy, they would be under suspicion for treason...
...then infect the chain of command all the way to Washington. Some New Orleans police officers turned in their badges, unwilling to work in the lawless city. On Tuesday, when parts of the city were already under 20 feet of water, the Pentagon deployed five ships to the Gulf--four from Norfolk, Va., four days away. On Friday, 6,500 National Guard finally arrived to help restore order...