It was way stronger and more dramatic down this way, and as hurricanes go it wasn't that dramatic.
But since the Weather Channel decided to turn things like this into "end of world" events a decade or so ago, every other network has just copied them.
For Hurricane Floyd back about 8 or 9 years ago all the networks brought down their evening news anchors because we were going to get wiped off the face of the earth, and granted had the storm stayed on the path it was heading and at the strength it was at over open water . . . then yes, we would have been wiped off the face of the earth, but they always change course and/or lose strength.
Thanks to Katrina hitting a city that sits below sea level, and run by idiots this kind of drama is here to stay.