Katrina

Last night I watched a news channel hoping to get a glimpse of what was going on down-south with the storm.

They showed a newscaster who was in the French Quarter of New Orleans. He was giving his spiel about the damage and the camera man was panning around showing some of the devestation. They then focus on this bar and the news man proclaims that it is one of the only places still open They zoom in on people standing around in the dark drinking pints of beer. One man smiles and toasts the camera. Another man exits the bar with a girl on his arm - she is dressed for a night on the town.

This morning:

"An overnight break in the 17th Street Canal levee is allowing water from Lake Pontchartrain to pour into New Orleans, already flooded by Hurricane Katrina. Televised accounts said this morning that people have been trapped in the upper stories or attics of their homes by rapidly rising water. The combined effects of rain, storm surge and levee breaks have left 80 percent of New Orleans underwater, Mayor C. Ray Nagin said. Some portions of the city are beneath up to 20 feet of water."

It makes me think of this scripture:

"Matthew 24:38 For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; 39 and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be. "

The capacity of humans to "let the good times roll" despite the dangerous calamity waiting just around the corner never ceases to amaze and frighten me.