It's odd how these things sneak up on you. There you are, carrying on with life and minding your own business, and then you turn around one day and see that a major city has almost vanished off the map.
I was at Nolacon II. Every time I see the remains of the convention center on the TV, I can't help trying to match it up to my mental map to see if I can say, hey, that.s where the film room was, or Registration, or that.s the corner where there was the display describing the proposed new zone system. Most vividly of all, I remember the tropical storm that blew through during the con, turning Canal Street into more canal than street. The preferred method of crossing the street from the hotel became to form a protective clump of twenty or more, wait for a break in traffic, and then make a mad dash through the blinding downpour. Ever since, New Orleans has been fixed in my mind behind a curtain of pouring rain. In retrospect, of course, it seems inevitable.