Andrew passed over what, 50km of land? Dean might have to cross 250km of land. Dont you think its going to affect it?

Remember that Katrina and Rita were only category 3 hurrianes when they hit land. Dean is forecasted to fall to category 2 and then restrengthen to category 3 before hitting the mainland.

From the looks of things, there's quite a bit of oil related infrastructure where the storm is forecasted to make land. This could still be a terribly devastating event.

I did inhale.