Another story of how New Orleans survived!
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12511256.htm
French Quarter survives -- with luck and a prayer
The French Quarter was damaged by Katrina, but it was not destroyed, and tourists and residents let the good times roll and wondered why they were so lucky.
By ERIKA BOLSTAD
ebolstad@herald.com
NEW ORLEANS - At the start of hurricane season, the historic St. Louis Cathedral in the heart of the French Quarter offers a short prayer in the Sunday church bulletin to Our Lady of Prompt Succor.
Each year, the city's Catholics clip out the prayer, place it on their refrigerators and repeat the entreaty whenever a tropical depression appears in the Gulf of Mexico: Spare New Orleans from a direct hit by a hurricane.
''Consequently, these things never hit us dead on,'' said Jim Dartez, 62, who evacuated his lakefront home with his wife and daughter and spent Hurricane Katrina at a high-rise hotel in the city's downtown.
CITY SPARED
It may be prayer or geographic luck, but when Hurricane Katrina made landfall Monday morning, it sideswiped New Orleans.
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