Katrina and Galveston

How is it that in Galveston, Texas in 1900 our ancestors recovered from a much more savage storm, that wreaked a much higher human toll, in much less time? Were they just better people? Did they have a better government? Were they better-organized? What?

I'm serious, what's the difference? 8,000 out of 42,000 killed, the city flooded and destroyed, with funeral pyres dotting the beaches for weeks. Yet within 3 weeks the city was shipping cotton again.

It's 2 years later and New Orleans is apparently tottering on the brink of being mid-80's Beirut, to read the reports. What the hell's going on down there??