Unfortunately, so much of it is exactly what happened. We predicted that people would be trapped in their houses. Sitting on roofs,

It's not that people are willfully saying we're only going to build it to a Category 3 [rating], and that's where we'll stop. It's just that's as far as the levee system had developed,

We build all of our houses out of concrete blocks.

Gracie: You have an unusual house. Have you lived here long?
Bobby Tom: A couple of years. I don't much like it myself, but the architect is real proud of it. She calls it urban Stone Age with a Japanese Tahitian influence. I sort of just call it ugly.

When the wind speed began to go down the storm surge did not dissipate. ... There was essentially a lot more momentum in the water than there was in the wind.

I think the teachers are just as excited as the kids. Many teachers told me they had difficulty sleeping because they had first day jitters.