Hurricane Gustav not a Katrina repeat, but still destructive.

On the heels of the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Gustav made landfall around noon on Sept. 1 as a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of up to 110 miles per hour. As floodwaters splashed over levees in New Orleans, and residents bravely volunteered to sandbag the base of a leaking levee, the nation held its collective breath, hoping and praying that this would not be Katrina’s encore performance.

Thankfully, it wasn’t. Although the levees remained relatively intact, Gustav still packed a powerful punch. Seven deaths in Louisiana and 93 in Haiti and the Dominican Republic can be blamed on this deadly storm. Communities across the Louisiana and Mississippi coast and the Florida panhandle were flooded and received wind damage, and at least 2,000 homes were affected.

Zack Rosenburg, director of the St. Bernard Project--the Hurricane Katrina recovery agency in Chalmette, La., wrote in his blog that the Gustav aftermath "is truly a best case scenario.... Residents can return and know they will be safe." He also issued a reminder that there are still 1,800 families affected by Hurricane Katrina who are living in FEMA trailers in St. Bernard Parish. "I just ask that we don’t lose sight of the fact that we have not escaped Katrina yet," he said.

Source: 9/3/2008 Newsline Extra