Keeping up with city politics is way too complicated. First it seemed like the issue to watch would be the waterfront trolley. Then it was the South Lake Union Streetcar. And then the pricey monorail and flip-floppery. Now, though, it seems like there’s a tragedy that everyone can bank on to bolster their campaign — Disaster Preparedness!!

It seems that the suffering in New Orleans provides a great opportunity to turn the mirror on ourselves and look toward the way that Seattle would handle an impending disaster. Check out today’s P-I for a recap on some of the posturing on the issue from last night’s CityClub candidate debate [Ed: sorry, two "liveblogs" in one week is one "liveblog" too many.] in which all of the contestants agreed that Seattle isn’t ready for a big fat environmental catastrophe. [p-i]

In more Katrina is kind of about all of us news, the P-I has a story about how a whopping 100 people have made their way from the gulf coast to the Rainier Valley [#] and a nice profile of the surge in Red Cross volunteer trainings taking place locally [#] in response to the hurricane. (SPOILER ALERT: At least one of the wannabe Seattle volunteers is both poor and African-American.)

In cuddlier news, there’s a wrap-up post about Project Teddy Bear posted at the Seattle Livejournal [lj] with pictures of volunteers in the home stretch of their efforts to ship boxes and boxes of stuffed animals to the disaster zone.

update: more on the “we’re screwed” front

• Nickels cancels disaster preparedness briefing, city council is outraged [p-i]
• Maybe because experts say we’re not ready? [p-i]