NOLA: The Critical Factor

No matter how many Gulf Coast photos I look at tonight, I keep coming back to this one — the levees fixed at the center of the human and political Gustav story.

NYT slide show: Hurricane Gustav Nears Gulf Coast

(image: Richard Perry/The New York Times.  August 31, 2008.  New Orleans.  caption: Nancy Brown, a resident of the Bucktown neighborhood, just a few houses from the Lake Pontchartrain levee, replaced a few sand bags)