As August ended and into the first half of September two major hurricanes bracketed the city putting everyone on edge.
Ultimately the storms only lashed New Orleans with a few windy, rainy remote bands. You never forget the potential of a storm when you feel those warm, humid winds on your skin.
Coming ashore as a category 4 storm on August 26, at Rockport, Texas, Harvey drifted slowly east along the coast line making two more landfalls before moving north across western Louisiana. Houston struggled with flooding from 50 inches of rain,
Forming in the Atlantic on August 25 Irma became the strongest Atlantic basin hurricane on record. As a category 5 hurricane it smashed across Barbuda, the Virgin Islands, brushed Puerto Rico and ravaged Cuba's northern coast. Blocked by high pressure from a cold front in the Gulf, Irma turned north as a Cat 4. Crossing the Keys, it then ran the entire length of Florida south to north, causing flooding on both the east and west coasts on September 10.
Maria turned east into the Atlantic after crushing Puerto Rico. The federal response in Puerto Rico came under intense criticism that it did not approach the vigor of the Harvey and Irma responses. The White House denied any lack of vigor.
Hurricane season ends in November.