On balance the analysis of the path of Katrina shows that in the final few hours the hurricane veered away from downtown New Orleans heading actually slightly northeast toward Mississippi where most people had evacuated or had trees to climb  The storm tide in Mississippi was typically  feet m high after  hours gutting rdfloor rooms while in New Orleans the tide was less than  feet  m from being on the weak west side of the eyepath  The levee system raised to feet high would have been swamped  feet under by the Mississippi tide that flooded  miles inland  Also just before landfall Katrinas eyewall replacement cycle miraculously reduced windspeed from a HurricaneCamille force down to only  mph  kmh which might have shattered most windows in the French Quarter but the wind subsided  The  left in New Orleans could have faced a gushing sea of broken glass but instead saw slowly rising water for days and had time to leave or wait for evacuation help from FEMA  Although Katrinas reduced winds might seem like a madeforNOLA miracle many hurricanes have undergone a similar eyewall replacement cycle as winds slow suddenly when a hurricane approaches a wide land mass