Last weekend, I was mildly incensed.
"Why", I asked, "did the approach of a hurricane towards mainland USA constitute such a major story? Did Mumbai get quite as much coverage during its epic monsoons?"
It felt like a real CNN story - two days' build up, two days' duration, two days' aftermath and then onto the next major photo opportunity.
Well, in retrospect, I couldn't have been more wrong and, in the ensuing week, it has been like watching a society unravel. Firstly, there was the mass evacuation of the city by those with the means to get out. Then, there was the fury of the hurricane itself. And then, the aftermath; the implacable movement of the floodwaters as they covered the lands and broke through the levées into the city of New Orleans.
Tens of thousands have been stranded; untold numbers have lost their lives, probably thousands. And then nothing. Just camera crews recording the trapped and the lost. And then the looting started. Firstly, just ordinary people getting food. Then more organised crime. The looting of luxury goods. Then the fires; some caused by storm damaged, some by malicious hand. Then the attacks, the rapes, the shooting and the mysterious decision to divert National Guardsmen and police away from the business of assisting people to protecting property.
Currently, it's a dead city and the hinterlands are little better off. More major evacuation and some repair work has begun but what is it going to take to restore any semblance of a normality?
The talk is of six weeks, at least, to pump out the flood waters. But that's not an end to it. There are hundreds of dead bodies putrefying in those waters. Disease has got to be an issue. How long will it take to restore a clean water supply and where will it be piped from? How has the drainage system stood up? What about gas and electricity let alone transport networks?
My question is whether it isn't worth simply upping sticks and trying again elsewhere.
Oh, and this is just the beginnings of the hurricane season. There's another month to go yet before the danger passes.
Over here, it's been like watching another Hollywood disaster movie. We're not directly touched. Roland, I know, has friends there who are safe but unhoused at present. However, the Gulf Coast is one of the major trade routes for oil so we'd better all be prepared for higher prices and difficulties ahead.