If you want to understand exactly how cruel and disastrous Hurricane Katrina was to hundreds of thousands of people, you need to understand just one simple fact: Katrina hit on the 29th of the month.
The 29th! If only Katrina had held off a few more days and hit on September 2nd, what a different world we might be seeing.
Most upper and middle-class Americans probably don't get the significance of that date. If you're not someone who depends on welfare, on food stamps, on a disability check, or you're not someone who simply lives paycheck to paycheck, the complete horror of a disaster hitting two days before the end of the month may be lost on you.