Ever since I was a kid, I've been told that if a major hurricane directly hit New Orleans, it would be the end of the city as we know it. Built below sea level, bounded by a lake and a major river a stone's throw from the ocean, New Orleans has been sinking by itself for the last hundred years. As levies have tamed the once-usual flooding of the Mississippi, the regular deposits of silt and sediment have stopped, leaving the actual ground of New Orleans without replenishment as the soil slowly sinks into the Gulf of Mexico. Further works have tried to bound the Mississippi and keep it from the bed-changing that major rivers do from time to time. This has resulted in the steady erosion of the delta which once served as a reliable breakwater for the city itself.

We're talking about a city that buries its dead in tombs because you can't dig a grave without it filling with water.

Moments ago, Fark linked to this most extraordinary weather warning from the National Weather Service with the remarkably apt quip, "New Orleans National Weather Service Office officially loses all bowel control."

I've never seen such an amazing warning issued by a government agency. Earlier today, the mayor of New Orleans issues a mandatory evacuation order for the city, and nearly everyone is getting the hell out of town. Hurricane Katrina has been upgraded to Category 5, the strongest label for such a storm. There are reports of the Air force recon flights calling back with atmospheric pressure less than 908 millibars and sustained winds of 184mph, with gusts well over 200mph. Those are tornado readings.

Now, of course, the network news agencies are acting like the end of the world is neigh, with each trying to out-disaster each other. Is Katrina going to wipe out New Orleans? I don't know, seems a kind of implausible. We've still got 24 hours until estimated landfall, the intensity and track can change a lot in that time. But, having heard about the possibility of it for so long, I can't deny really being curious as to how it'll work out. This is equivalent to an earthquake dumping Los Angeles into the Pacific, a dream of grand disaster that sucks you in with horribleness, like a Michael Bay movie. And unlike an earthquake, a hurricane gives enough warning that people can actually get out in time.

Whether the city is lost or not, this is going to be very cool.