Sunken+BD

Brittany Douthwright- The Sunken City

I found this article particularly interesting, because it was written in 1987, and it was not long after, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and destroyed it. This article shows readers how much knowledge McPhee actually has when it comes to the environment. In this article, I found some specific environmental images which blew my mind when I visualized them. For example, when he talks about New Orleans being a whole the water falls into. The very first sentence is pretty dramatic: “ New Orleans, surrounded by levees, is emplaced between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi like a broad shallow bowl.” Also, when he talks about the carport dangling on the side of a house: “A carport that is not firmly anchored may dangle from the side of a house like a third of a drop-leaf table.” These are all pretty dramatic images, but the one that caught my eye the most: “New Orleans is not a place for interment. In all its major cemeteries, the clients lie aboveground. In the intramural flash floods, coffins go out of their crypts and take off down the street.” Now this, I’m not sure whether McPhee wanted this to be humorous, but this image probably would have been at the time. The harsh fact is, this would not be so funny today, as it actually happened not long ago. I am surprised that I have not found a recent article about what happened to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. It seems like it would have been something that interested McPhee. Perhaps there is something out there and I can’t find it. Besides the point, this article was the only one I have read so far that involved the environment but also some humor. I find McPhee gets rather serious when he talks about the environment, but in this one, he still kept his subtle sarcasm, which I love.