I'm sure there are many more excellent sites. For most hurricanes the fear is greater than the actual damage. Hopefully that will be true with Rita. Unfortunately Katrina lived up to the hype.

The only good thing Katrina did it appears is stir up the Gulf so much that the water temps are just a bit cooler... enough so that Rita might not fully develop into a major storm... at least that is what Forecaster 'Franklin' wrote this morning. Too early yet to be sure however.

That and the location projected for Gulf landfall is now south of Houston & most of the petro facilities. Also not locked in but better... ground for even more optimism.

If it goes far enough south it might make landfall at Padre Island Nat'l Seashore... a beautiful but uninhabited stretch of barrier island national park. Great fishing & birding... but almost no buildings.

Padre Island National Seashore (U.S. National Park Service)

If that happened the storm would move sand around but not cause a lot of real damage... nothing that nature couldn't fix on her own, cheaply & quickly.

That would be ideal... if people made the connection... compared the development at say Gulfport/Biloxi & Padre Island... and then the damage & cost to fix. Maybe then folks would realize it is a lot wiser to have 'day use' facilities on these beaches & barrier islands... but move the 'hard' development inland.

Environmentally & economically a much wiser thing to do.

But that would require wisdom & leadership on the part of our rulers... not too much of that about.