You are exactly right. Katrina’s center passed over Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes in Louisiana on a northward track, officially making landfall in Waveland, MS just east of the state line. Technically speaking, the storm did not hit New Orleans, but brushed it with the western (weaker) edge of the eyewall. Even this was enough to cause the infamous catastrophe which resulted. I’ve been through hurricanes in the NOLA area going back to Betsy in 1965. On my own “damage to New Orleans” scale of 1-10, I put Katrina at about a 6. A more powerful storm, moving NW on a path just west of the city, would flood New Orleans completely, along with much of the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain. That’s why I moved about 100 miles inland. (And have still lost power from hurricanes since then!)
Katrina’s surge along the MS coast, on the strong side of the storm, was officially 27+ feet. The woman in this article lives in Carolina Beach, which lies on a barrier island just north of the projected path of the storm center. Ground elevations there range from 3-13’, with the average given as 7’. If the projected path holds, this area will likely experience worst-case surge conditions, as winds in the storm’s NE quadrant drive the water ahead of them with maximum force. Staying there is utterly foolish.
The storm still “hit” New Orleans by any reasonable definition of the word.
This woman is horrible naive.