Thinking About the Gulf Coast

This is not a day to be blogging about second home prospects, especially for someone like me who has relatives with a home in the New Orleans area. However, there's a lesson in Hurricane Katrina. It's a devastating reminder that however attractive a community may be most of the year, there are natural dangers lurking everywhere. If you love the mountains, you must take snowstorms and windstorms into consideration. If you love the desert, don't lose sight of drought and its awful flip side, floods. If you love the beach, hurricanes and nor'easter-type storms must enter into your calculations. If you love California, you must realize earthquakes can strike with no warning. Let's hope that whatever the property damage caused by Katrina, the early warnings will have helped to save lives.