Katrina's Devastation and Memories of Agnes ...

I'm sorry to have been absent for so long this week ... I have visited and enjoyed all that you've been posting, here and on other sites of the blogosphere ... but time for posting of my own? ... that's something else.

But I have had time to think in the midst of the thousands of words, photos, videoclips and links I have published - so far - this week, and you have given me much to think about ... and for that, I am grateful, for it has had some effect upon what, when and how I publish.

I am also thinking back more than thirty years, standing on the banks of the Susquehanna, desperately raising the the level of the dikes that were so hard-pressed by the floods that accompanied Tropical Storm Agnes ...

I remember the odd mixture of excitement and exhaustion as thousands of us labored at sandbagging ... the shock and incredible sadness when air raid sirens filled the air with their mournful wail ... telling us that the engineers had determined a break was imminent, and that we had to leave ... NOW ...

I remember being overwhelmed by the site of a river three miles wide, after the dikes burst on both sides of the river, flooding the communities of the Wyoming Valley ...

Thank God, we were spared the horrors being visited upon New Orleans and other communities smashed by Katrina ...

The flooding was confined to our valley ... relief in the form of volunteer fire companies and ambulance squads, emergency shelters and fully-functional hospitals ... communities untouched by the ravages of Agnes ... were just ten miles away, on the other side of the mountains that lined the valley ...

We had effective leadership that had prepared for such an event (previous floods in 1936 and 1902), we had a plan that incorporated policemen firefighters, stat police, even Boy Scouts (that's how I ended up on the dikes).

We had effective communications that survived Agnes' rampage and enabled us to identify and address emergencies as they came up ... a fire, for example, in Wilkes-Barre's flooded downtown district ... that was extinguished after a firefighting boat was airlifted to the valley ... but also sending a couple of people out in some guy's little motorboat to pull someone off the top of their house.

And we weren't alone ... the National Guard and the regulars of the U.S. Armed Forces turned out in force ... and for the first few days after the waters of the Susquehanna receded, something like martial law was imposed and traffic in and out of the valley was severely curtailed as the damage and the death toll was assessed. They also choppered supplies and medical personnel back and forth across the valley before the bridges were repaired, and trucked supplies to shelters that were established in neighboring communities.

I've thought a lot about our National Guard in the last few days. That most effective of forces for tackling emergencies and restoring order is stretched to the limit ... and beyond ...

For these reasons, and more, I never felt the absolute desperation people are feeling - and rightfully so! - in the streets of New Orleans tonight ... God bless them and comfort them, strengthen their spirits, and the spirits of those rushing to their aid!