Don't be so sure, RW! Based on the predicted track a few posts before yours, western Louisiana will be impacted by Rita's right-front quadrant and that quadrant is generally recognized to have the most damaging conditions at land-fall. From the link:
This is because the winds have an additive effect - the hurricane's sustained on-shore winds plus the speed of motion of the hurricane. So, if a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph is moving toward shore at 20 mph, the total wind speed at the coast could be about 120 mph in the right-front quadrant.
Because the onshore winds are strongest in the right-front quadrant, the surge and waves in that section of the cyclone are also the highest. "Depending on the tropical cyclone's speed of motion, wave action in a cyclone can be three times as high in the right-front quadrant than in the left-rear quadrant," says Lyons. "The right-front quadrant is definitely the damage quadrant at the coast."
N.O.LA got some after-the-fact flooding from Katrina but it was the Missippi Gulf coast that got obliterated by Katrina's right-front quadrant. If Rita's predicted path is towards the eastern side of the 'cone of probability', then Cajun country is in a whole lot of trouble.
The region's flood control infrastructure is in a weakened condition. I think this is why the Mayor is showing concern. His levees and pumps might be overburdened by much less this time than what hit last time.
you are overestimating the size of the strong "right front quadrant"...we are talking 25-50 miles or so.....not 300.
based on current official track just southwest of galveston...la will experience nearly nothing.