Overwhelming underestimation

1:35 p.m. 9/24/05
This hurricane season continues to catch officials, from the federal level to local government, in underestimation mode. The latest evidence was the demand for sandbags from the city of Shreveport. Cars continued to stack up Saturday at the city's sandbag pickup point with a wait time of several hours. Once under the shed, the swarming workers loaded cars and trucks without drivers even having to leave their vehicles.
The city's options apparently are limited in expanding sites since they need a large shed to keep the sand dry and to have room for front-end loaders to scoop it up into tidy piles. But it's clearly a point that will need to be addressed with the next flooding scare. As for the public, it means that the troubles in New Orleans coupled with the projections of potential double-digit rainfall totals has gotten everyone's attention. An ounce (or bag) of prevention ..

Craig Durrett, editorial page editor