Today, I'm a worrier

Normally, I don't spend a lot of time worrying about things, particularly that which is out of my control. But I was already concerned about Hurricane Katrina and the effect it would have on New Orleans last night, when it was a category 3. When I woke up this morning and heard on NPR that the storm had become a category 5 hurricane, it stopped me in my tracks.

As I write this, Katrina has sustained winds of 175 mph -- which basically makes it a gigantic F3 tornado. The city is being evacuated, but 1.3 million people live in the area and I would guess there are tens of thousands of people who don't have the means to leave. Traffic on the main interstate out of town is so jammed it's at a standstill. And while Katrina won't make landfall until tomorrow morning, the weather will get bad late this afternoon. Much of the rest of the Gulf Coast is being evacuated as well. The storm surge is expected to be 25 feet high, much higher than the levees that protect New Orleans -- parts of which are already 20 feet below sea level.

Only two other category 5 hurricanes have hit the U.S. since they started keeping track of these things -- Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which caused $26.5 billion in damage, and Hurricane Camille in 1969, which killed 256 people.

Katrina already killed seven people and dumped 18 inches of rain on Florida -- and that's when it was a category 1. The worst-case scenarios involve New Orleans being under 15 feet of water, possibly for months, with no clean water, no sewage system, no electricity. I cringe to think what the death toll and destruction will be.

I pray I'm wrong.