'Hot and stinking Superdome'

This chilling report on the sad and desparate conditions at the Superdome in New Orleans struck me. This venue has seen classic Super Bowls, numerous college bowl games and basketball championship games. And now it sees this:

"An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet," writes the Associated Press.

It stuns me that this is going on in a major American city.

We should've been better prepared. We've known the risks were there. The New Orleans Times-Picayune did stories LAST YEAR on the horrible possibilities that we're now seeing.

After we're on the road to recovery and rebuilding...there better be a full reckoning about what went wrong and how it can be prevented from happening this way again. From the emergency preparedness issues to the disaster response, everthing needs to be considered.

Unrest Intensifies at the Superdome Shelter [AP via Yahoo!]
Washing Away: A Special Report [New Orleans Times-Picayune]