Today is actor Quvenzhané Wallis' birthday. She was the child star of the film Beasts of the Southern Wild, which presented a poetic, joyous, and almost ethno-anthropologic portrait of life in the lowest of Louisiana low-country bayous. The film also revealed the impacts of climate change on their lives and culture, and the effects of displacement caused by hurricanes and flooding. Quvenzhané turns 18 today.
In real life, Hurricane Ida's growing into a monster. It already has maximum sustained winds near 105 mph, with even higher gusts. The storm will strengthen even more in the next 12 to 24 hours and by the time Ida makes landfall tomorrow, it is expected to be an extremely dangerous Class 4 hurricane, although it will quickly weaken as it travels inland.
Hurricane Ida should hit the Louisiana coast exactly 16 years to the day after Katrina, but this year's storm is also making landfall right near the epicenter of the current covid pandemic. Atlanta experienced a significant influx of New Orleans transplants after Katrina, refugees from climate change, and if they arrive here again but this time with a high covid infection rate, that could spell a double disaster.
But at least the current track for now has the storm passing to the north of Atlanta. That's terrible news - the worst news - for rain-soaked central Tennessee after this week's floods, but it's a relief to me.
Best wishes to the Hushpuppies down in the bayou, and the folks still drying out in Tennessee.
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