WILL BUSH LOSE HOUSTON, TOO?

When President Bush attempted to take Iraq on the cheap with far too few troops, he lost Baghdad.

When President Bush refused to fund the strengthening of the levees in Louisiana, he lost New Orleans.

When President Bush was governor of Texas, he paid no heed to the submergible geography of the big oil city and its vulnerability to a major hurricane. With Hurricane Rita bearing down, will he lose Houston, too?

If Rita maintains its Category 5 status and smashes into Houston, it will deliver a 20-foot storm surge which will overflow Galveston Bay and flood north, into and over the homes of about 600,000 people. A great many will die within the first hour or two. The massive wave's speed and height will elevate to over 30 feet by the narrow, restricting nature of the Houston ship channel. The force of the water will be fearsome and irresistible. Everything in its path will be destroyed.

Huge rogue waves could follow. Hurricane Ivan produced one wave which measured 100 feet tall, about the height of a ten-story condo building. Imagine a ten-story building moving on you or your house at flank speed.

As nasty Rita's 120-mile-an-hour winds move inland, they will devastate Clear Lake, the Texas Medical Center and the whole downtown area. Trees, light poles, roofs, gutters and signs will be hurled into the air, forming a massive artillery barrage, the likes of which have not been seen since the Russians stormed Berlin in World War II. Buildings, capable of resisting the wind itself, will be heavily damaged by this great mass of flying debris.

During the 1980s, Houston's new glass and steel towers were constructed with an eye toward potential storm and wind damage. But the great majority of structures in Houston were built with little thought given to storm dangers. These older structures would be "Cuisinarted" by a hurricane with sustainable winds of 130 to 155 mph.

And remember, most hurricanes tend to set off a flurry of tornadoes whose winds can reach 250 mph. Nothing built by man can resist the lawnmower effect of a tornado touching land. Tornados have been known to mow down mature oak forests as if they were merely so much grass.

Within a day, we will learn whether or not Houston survives.

The credibility of the Bush Administration hangs in the balance.