It's the Incongruity, Stupid!

Umm, so from the safety of my Oakland, CA studio apartment...

Rita heads for Texas as Category 5 hurricane

OK easy enough, right? Well, perhaps this is just the California engineer in me over-analyzing things, but I was under the impression that this Rita problem shouldn't be anywhere near the chaos that was the Katrina problem.

Because there aren't any cities below sea level with levees threatening to burst, right? Wasn't that the problem, or am I missing something? This is a serious question, i'm not trying to be a smart-ass (!) right now...

tio j