First of all, unfortunately the weather forecasters do not have a crystal ball so they don't know exactly what is going to happen but just yesterday Gustav was forecast to come ashore with over 131 MPH SUSTAINED winds. That's a little different than the 125 MPH wind GUSTS you are undoubtedly talking about. Second of all, a storm surge of 15 to 20 feet was forecast to hit the New Orleans area and as you may know, NO is largely below sea level. Seeing as 1,836 people died in the last hurricane to hit New Orleans (Katrina 2005) I'd say all of the hullabaloo was warranted.

Cheers!
Bill