I agree. If this was divine vengeance for Mardi Gras titty-flashing, the storm would have made landfall thirty miles more to the west, hitting New Orleans with the 30-foot storm surge from the onshore winds of its northeastern eyewall.
As it was, the Sodom of the South got off comparatively easily, and it was the god-shouters of Mississippi, the buckle on the Bible Belt, that got the brunt of it.
It's pointless to speculate further on the motives of the Almighty. These things can be soothed, but not explained, by faith.
-ccm
Allah did it.