Katrina was a Category five as it approached the shoreline, just as it was about to hit it was downgraded, why? Well the eye-wall was reforming as they often do along the way. Many Christians attributed to their prayers for the City of New Orleans, the Hurricane then slightly jogged to the right or Eastward. This helped in two ways, one minimized the direction of flow and duration of the storm surge into the inlet area in the direction of the lake.

Yes it could have been worse. People were warned early on thanks to the media weather folks, NASA Storm computer modeling and rapid response from the President to get on the air and tell people;