New Orleans & the Rising Waters

New Orleans last week

I've mentioned before that we came late --years late-- to the HBO series, Treme (2010-13). It is set in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and has both great acting and great music. The cast is an ensemble and the characters give us a sense of what recovery efforts meant for that unique city. The effects of the storm itself and the catastrophic flooding went far beyond physical damage and multiple deaths. Individuals were traumatized and the social order broke down in a variety of ways explored most effectively in the first season. 



This past weekend Hurricane Barry weakened to a tropical storm and then slipped past southern Lousiana and New Orleans. The warning was that 10 to 20 inches could fall on this area, or 250 to 500 millimetres. If we receive 30 to 40 millimetres it's a deluge. As it was, enough rain fell over a few days to flood historic parts of the city. 

There was a modest amount of 'ligion in the first season of Treme with Mardi Gras and funeral processions and the like. We all need to get religion and understand that addressing climate change and its effects are a God-given responsibility for a planet in peril. The United Nations is warning us that one smaller-scale climate crisis occurs every week now, far more than predicted. We can pray for the storms to pass us by, but God is probably sighing at our unwillingness to act decisively as a form of prayer. 



Treme Funeral Procession