For many years there have been two nightmare scenarios in the disaster relief community regarding hurricanes.
Galveston, because there's only one way off the island and large numbers of Texans consistently refuse to evacuate. 6,000 people lost their lives there in 1900 when a hurricane swept the island and the storm surge drowned everyone.
And then there's New Orleans. NOLA is below sea level, basically in a bowl. Massive Lake Pontchartrain borders on the north. During Katrina, the levy was breached in a couple of small sections, and that caused all the flooding that chased residents to their roofs for 3 days on international TV.
Katrina missed NOLA, ground zero was miles east at Bay St. Louis, Biloxi and Gulfport. Katrina was also a Cat 3 when it came onshore.
If Ida continues on it's projected path, and makes landfall as a Cat 4, the wind and flood damage alone would be far worse than Katrina. If the levy breeches, New Orleans will have 20 feet of water in the streets until it's pumped out. And how would you even do that if the levy fails.
I generally try not to imagine the worst when a storm is heading in. This one feels different.
Ironically, Sunday is the 16th anniversary of Katrina.