After Lili, parish got 9 calls about damage _ and $15.4 million.

Publication: South Florida Sun-Sentinel (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2005 South Florida Sun-Sentinal

Byline: Megan O'Matz

BATON ROUGE, La. _ Three years before Hurricane Katrina struck, another monster storm headed for Louisiana with winds up to 145 mph.

Lili "remains an extremely dangerous Category 4 Hurricane," the National Weather Service warned the night before landfall. "Deadly 10- to 20-foot storm surge approaching the coast."

Shortly before reaching the state, the storm weakened considerably, to Category 1 force.

Then-Gov. Mike Foster attributed the sudden change to "divine intervention."

That same day, the governor asked the president to issue disaster declarations for more than half the state. State and local officials never did a thorough damage assessment but instead sent helicopters to fly...

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