Thursday, September 01, 2005

Putting it in perspective

It's difficult to get a mental grasp on the scope of the Katrina disaster, and so I looked up some comparably sized US metropolitan districts. Think about any one of these cities suddenly ceasing to exist:

  • 29 San Antonio, TX MSA 1,592,383
  • 30 Norfolk--Virginia Beach--Newport News, VA--NC MSA 1,569,541
  • 31 Las Vegas, NV--AZ MSA 1,563,282
  • 32 Columbus, OH MSA 1,540,157
  • 33 Charlotte--Gastonia--Rock Hill, NC--SC MSA 1,499,293
  • 34 New Orleans, LA MSA 1,337,726
  • 35 Salt Lake City--Ogden, UT MSA 1,333,914
  • 36 Greensboro--Winston-Salem--High Point, NC MSA 1,251,509
  • 37 Austin--San Marcos, TX MSA 1,249,763
  • 38 Nashville, TN MSA 1,231,311
  • 39 Providence--Fall River--Warwick, RI--MA MSA 1,188,613
  • 40 Raleigh--Durham--Chapel Hill, NC MSA 1,187,941
  • 41 Hartford, CT MSA 1,183,110
  • 42 Buffalo--Niagara Falls, NY MSA 1,170,111
  • 43 Memphis, TN--AR--MS MSA 1,135,614
  • 44 West Palm Beach--Boca Raton, FL MSA 1,131,184
  • 45 Jacksonville, FL MSA 1,100,491

Or imagine one of these cities of comparable size in other parts of the world suddenly being wiped out:

  • 293 Copenhagen Denmark 1,400,000
  • 299 Lille France 1,375,000 incl. Kortrijk (Belgium)
  • 304 Volgograd Russia 1,375,000
  • 305 Liverpool Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1,350,000
  • 311 Düsseldorf Germany 1,325,000
  • 314 New Orleans USA 1,325,000
  • 315 Phnom Penh Cambodia 1,325,000
  • 318 San José Costa Rica 1,325,000
  • 329 Prague Czech Republic 1,275,000
  • 331 Sheffield Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1,275,000
  • 333 Auckland New Zealand 1,250,000

2 comments:

Chris said...

Wow. That really does put things in perspective. My thoughts and prayers go out to the folks affected by Katrina. :/

MB said...

I hear you. It makes me sick just thinking about it.