When the levee breaks...

When Katrina gave us a miss to the south, I was pretty happy.

But now, seeing what she's done to the Mississippi Delta, I actually feel a little bit guilty. I can't help but think that if she'd hit us as a cat 1 and crossed over a wider part of Florida, she'd have been a bit weaker and had a lot less of the Gulf over which to build up steam, and things might have gone easier for the Big Easy. But on the other hand, it might have plowed into Florida's panhandle, which got smacked by Dennis this year while still rebuilding from Ivan *last* year. That, and some of my coworkers have pointed out that there are still folks here with blue tarps, and even a "modest" cat 1 would still have had severe consequences.

But still...I'm just completely shocked by Katrina's wake. I've never been to New Orleans (and to be honest, have had very little desire to go there), but the flooding it got from even this indirect hit is just completely incomprehensible to me.