NYTimes on Destruction of Evidence

See Peter Applebome & Jonathan D. Slater, In New Orleans, a Legal System Is in Shambles, NYTimes Online (Sept. 9, 2005)(story dated Sept. 8).

How to Think about Massive Destruction of Evidence

Massive amounts of evidence were lost as a result of the Gulf Coast disaster. I find it interesting -- and distressing -- that I don't know how to begin to think about this macrocosmic evidentiary event. My work on evidence is almost always on a microscopic scale. This may be why my mind is frozen. (No wisecracks please!)

If anyone out there reads this blog, please tell me: What are some of the major evidentiary issues or issues of evidentiary policy that will arise from the widespread loss of judicial records, case files, interview notes, reams of documents, the death of witnesses, and the like?

Widespread and long-lasting

If anyone deserves blame for the catastrophe on the Gulf Coast, is it not the case that

(i) many people and organizations share the blame for the bungled evacuation and rescue efforts, and

(ii) the failure to bolster the infrastructure of New Orleans against possible flooding was the result of literally decades of neglect?