Hm...I think I may have figured out what the lesson was in the above. What I was told at the time was something about a "wall of water" (the idea that they must mean a levee wouldn't hold was my own). I just came across this on the CNN website, referring to Hurricane Ike:
| Quote: |
| The weather service painted a vivid picture in its warning of the destruction it expects: a towering wall of water, possibly up to 22 feet high, crashing over the Galveston Bay shoreline as the brunt of Ike comes ashore. That wall of water could send floodwaters surging into Houston, more than 20 miles inland. |
I should add that shortly after I wrote that original post I was told something about how things would be worst at something like "Vessy Street"--I couldn't find one in New Orleans, and I thought maybe it had something to do with Vesey Street in NYC (very close to where the WTC was). I kind of forgot about that, thinking that I must have gotten it wrong. But I just looked and saw Galveston--I dunno, there's that "VES"...but maybe I'm just pushing things here too much.
Just after reading that this morning, I talked to my guide about it. "So," I said, "you see things that MIGHT happen, but you don't know exactly where or when?" (I'd been thinking that maybe they just relay worst-case scenarios out of a number of different related options).
"List of things," was the answer.
"You see a 'list' of things that might happen, but you don't get all the details?"
"Yes."
So maybe I'm figuring this out. Or maybe it's a coincidence? I guess it could be, but just the phrase "wall of water", and "Vessy Street/Galveston" seem kind of specific.
Doe