In the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav’s landfall along the Louisiana coast on Tuesday, there is somewhat of a big sigh of relief, particularly in New Orleans. Gustav continued to weaken up and until landfall by mid-morning on Monday, and that along with the fact that it reached the shoreline a bit further out of the reach of New Orleans may have saved the Big Easy. However, there is still more time that needs to go by with no problems before we can say that the coast is clear.

If you recall, immediately after Hurricane Katrina crashed ashore first in Buras and then along the Louisiana and Mississippi border some three years ago, there was relief. Then, a few hours later, the first reports of the levees being breached came in. Within hours after that, the flood waters began to overwhelm the city, and one of the biggest nightmares in United States History began to unfold in shocking detail.

There was already some problems with a levee down in Plaquemines Parish to the Southeast of New Orleans. Flood waters from the surge and heavy rains produced by Gustav had eroded the levee significantly, and forced residents and officials down there to do whatever they could to sandbag it, and reinforce it so that it wouldn’t give way, and let the flood waters break through. Other levees were topped by the surging waters, and there was reports of flooding in the Upper Ninth Ward not the Lower Ninth Ward, which went down in infamy following Katrina.

Hopefully, the coming days will reveal that New Orleans and its surrounding parishes survived the test brought on by Gustav. However, critics will charge that Gustav didn’t provide as much of a test, and that this beleaguered region will still be in limbo on whether or not it is capable of withstanding the next big storm to come directly at it.