Worse Than Katrina

Gustav is twice the size of Katrina, and by the time it passes through the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico it'll be bigger. They've begun the mandatory evacuations.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city beginning 8 a.m. Sunday but urged residents to consider escaping "the mother of all storms" before then.

"You need to be scared," Nagin said of the Category 4 hurricane tearing along Cuba's western coast. "You need to be concerned, and you need to get your butts moving out of New Orleans right now. This is the storm of the century."

The city's west bank is to evacuate at 8 a.m.

Nagin said the city had evacuated roughly 10,000 people Saturday on buses, trains and planes, in addition to the thousands who left on their own. Buses from collection points would continue running until midnight and resume at 6 a.m. Sunday, he said.

Here's what the region DOESN'T need - a Presidential candidate visit so that resources can be pulled from public safety. Who does McCain expect to have listen to him prattle on, instead of getting the hell out of town? Also, the talk about how it "wouldn't be appropriate" to hold a big party while a major American city is in peril, John? You don't get to say that.

It looks like the Republicans are going to put on their compassionate face on this one, scaling back their convention and doing some kind of mass telethon, using the convention as a marketing tool. I don't think that is going to work. Presumably, Americans actually remember Katrina and the stunning lack of competence. The graphic of the storm bearing down on the city in a picture-in-picture while speeches are being made - one from the Governor of Louisiana - is not going to be pretty. This is what's going to linger:



Meanwhile, I'm voting for Matt Duss. For something.

Earlier today, ThinkProgress contacted John Hagee Ministries to see if erstwhile John McCain endorser Rev. Hagee saw the Lord’s hand in reports that President Bush might not speak at the Republican National Convention on Monday because of Tropical Storm Gustav [...]

ThinkProgress asked Rev. Hagee’s spokesperson, Kara Silverman, whether Gustav’s possible impact on the Republican National Convention might be seen as punishment against Republicans for their not having done enough to combat the “homosexual agenda,” or whether this storm could be attributed to some other target of divine wrath.

Ms. Silverman said Hagee had “no comment.”

Brilliant.

But if you're anywhere near the Gulf, the take away from this post is, get the hell out of town.