Hurricanes

I've never been a storm freak. In Kansas, you get tornados; in Florida, you get hurricanes -- what's the big deal, right?

But last year Florida was hit by 4 hurricanes, and three of them came pretty close to Tampa. None ended up directly hitting Tampa or my bedroom community, but we sure thought the first one, Charlie, was aimed at us before it turned. Within a week or two of Charlie, I went down to Punta Gorda and toured the devastation. It was really hard to believe. Now, I have started to understand a lot of people's fascination and fright.

So, I'm watching Hurricane Katrina pretty closely. The news reports are, of course, so much crap. I just wanted to tell everyone of those on-location reporters last night that yes, we know it's really windy and yes, we know it's really rainy, and yes, we know the water is lapping over the sea wall.

Here are a few things I'm worrying about, specifically, as Katrina continues to hit the Gulf Coast:

• The New Orleans area produces a tremendous amount of the nation's raw oil from its offshore drilling facilities and refines a tremendous amount of the nation's gasoline, with a lot of it headed to Florida daily. So, if those rigs and refineries are out of commission for any length of time, gas could really double in price here.
• The politicos will of course then have to attack the problem. The headlines are already mentioning Bush and the strategic oil reserve, and I guess that's what it's there for, although I am by no means an expert.
  
• So, beyond the strategic oil reserve, what else can Bush and his Republican ilk do to attack the impending problem?
• Here's my guess: We start hearing Dubya say, over and over and over, "8/29," just like he says "9/11" now, whenever he wants to justify some misguided adventure of his.
• And, he'll invade. My guess is, he will invade Seattle Washington. And then he'll say "8/29, 8/29," like some kind of misguided Buddhist mantra, whenever anyone questions the relationship between his invasion of Seattle and the hurricane of 8/29.
• And millions and millions of people -- most of them Republican, but not all -- will come to believe that somehow his invasion of Seattle was linked to Katrina.