Katrina was not at full strength?

New Data Suggest Katrina not a Category 4

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - (KRT) - Hurricane Katrina might have battered New Orleans and the Gulf Coast as a considerably weaker system than the Category 4 tempest initially reported.

New, preliminary information, compiled by hurricane researchers, suggests the system struck southeast Louisiana on Aug. 29 with peak-sustained winds of 115 mph. That would have made it a Category 3 storm, still a major hurricane but a step down from the enormous destructive force of a Category 4.

Katrina might have further downgraded to a strong Category 1 system with 95-mph winds, when it punched water through New Orleans' levees, severely flooding most of the city and killing hundreds. The levees were designed to withstand a Category 3 storm.

If verified, the wind information, compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hurricane Research Division, could have chilling ramifications.

Yeah, like the New Orleans levees were pieces of you-know-what ready to come apart with a good reason.

Like the next "real" hurricane that pounds into the Crescent City will find that the Big Easy won't be hard to kill off for good.

It's hard to muster much enthusiasm for rebuilding New Orleans without taking into consideration the long-term forecast for the land beneath the levees: Doom followed by gloom.