Well, the blackout went OK.

The Hudson is actually pretty clean these days. It's certainly cleaner than when Palisades Park filled it's wave pool with river water in the 50s and 60s.

All the lights were out and you suddenly realized that while a good portion of society exists by social contract, there is a substantial portion which is only law abiding only because the police are right there.

Tiajuana feels a little like that. The knowledge that you can do almost ANYTHING sorta gets under you skin and makes things seem ok that you'd never dream of doing otherwise.

And now Cass won't take me there anymore.

Gasoline from cars, algae and bacteria from the lake, dead animals--it's a deadly soup

Actually, the big problem is feces and other sewage. This is almost entirely brackish lake water with a twist of petrochemicals. It's not going to kill you, but again, drinking it won't make you feel healthy and strong.

I'm with bon bon and Allyson. I do not think I would take anything other than food, meds and toiletries. But honestly, I don't know. Your shack has just been destroyed. The place where you made minimum wage, has just been destroyed. Your car is gone. The freaking roads are gone. Don't put the diamond necklace in front of me, baby. Sitting here in my den, north of Boston, on a rainy afternoon, I wouldn't steal it. In fact, I'd protect it for you. But if everything as far as I could see was under water, and even if I had enough food for now, I'd be worried about a month or three from now. I just don't know.

Gasoline from cars, algae and bacteria from the lake, dead animals--it's a deadly soup

You forgot chemicals from the industrial areas, fire ants, poisonous snakes, and dead bodies, and possibly oil and gasoline from refineries at some point, too.

Just talked to my mom (south of Birmingham). She had a 12-hour power outage and some downed limbs, but only 1/2 an inch of rain.

She says looters are the scum of the earth. I said if I were running out of food or diapers and there was no one in the stores to give the money to, I'd for damn sure take what I needed. Only I didn't say "damn" to my mother, because I don't do that.

I saw a piece on the NOLA zoo animals at the gym -- saw, not heard, and had to look away because it was too upsetting.

I'm with bon bon and Allyson.

Yeah, but I'm arming myself to the teeth in addition to food and water.

It's not going to kill you, but again, drinking it won't make you feel healthy and strong.

You may have a higher tolerance than I. I'm not saying it would kill you right away, but all of that crap isn't going to cure cancer.

You forgot chemicals from the industrial areas, fire ants, poisonous snakes, and dead bodies, and possibly oil and gasoline from refineries at some point, too.

I didn't want to appear alarmist.

It's certainly cleaner than when Palisades Park filled it's wave pool with river water in the 50s and 60s.

Actually, Palisades Park's pool was salt water (it was advertised as the world's largest salt-water pool), so not directly from the Hudson. No idea where they got the water from, and don't really want to know, because I swam in it once.

During the much more minor flooding after Hurricane Lili (the deepest I saw on campus was about 2 or maybe 3 feet), almost all the kids at my college who decided to go play in the water ended up pretty sick the next day.