They Held Up

Thankfully, I was wrong. The NOLA levees were overtopped and spilled some floodwaters into town, but they held up.

Hurricane Gustav slammed into the heart of Louisiana's fishing and oil industry with 110 mph winds Monday, delivering only a glancing blow to New Orleans that raised hopes the city would escape the kind of catastrophic flooding brought by Katrina three years ago.

That did not mean the state survived the storm without damage. A levee in the southeast part of the state was on the verge of collapse, and officials scrambled to fortify it. Roofs were torn from homes, trees toppled and roads flooded. More than 1 million homes were without power.

It's still billions in damage, but it could have been far worse. Thankfully it was not. It helped that Gustav was down to a strong Category 2 when it hit and not a 4 or 5, but it seems the worst is over.

It doesn't change the fact that there's still plenty of rebuilding still left to do from Katrina, and there will be plenty more to do now.