An aside regarding Hurricanes

Hurricanes referred to by name (Ike, Gustav) are the ones that hit Texas or Florida, or didn't do much damage. When people here say "the storm" they mean Katrina. Before Katrina "the storm" meant Camille, which roughed up New Orleans in 1969. Katrina (which didn't flood the old neighborhood we're in) pretty much obliterated all the old Cajun houses south of New Orleans and heavily altered the coastline. People have a pretty good sense of humor here all the same; you can buy T-shirts here that say "I drove my Chevy to the levee and the levee was gone"; and there's a free newspaper called the Levee, whose tagline is, "we don't hold anything back". I feel compelled to say that people who think we should abandon New Orleans to hurricanes and global warming must have never been here. It's incredible and we'd all be missing out.