Folks in Louisiana and Mississippi have Pastor Jesten Peters and her followers to thank for sending Tropical Storm Isaac in their direction. Isaac had threatened to disrupt the Republican National Convention in Tampa this week, but Pastor Peters stepped in to save Republicans from a PR nightmare:

We have had lots and lots of people praying around the clock that it would move and if you watch from the very beginning where they were saying it's coming and now where they're saying it's going then it has really moved out of the way for us and we appreciate God doing that and moving it for us.

Well, Peter's must not have been praying hard enough—or God was busy fulfilling other requests (It is football season after all)—because before it changed course, organizers were forced to cancel the first day of the convention due to the impending storm. As per the pastor's wishes, Isaac is organizing, gaining momentum, and expected to make landfall as a catgory 1 hurricane late Tuesday or early Wednesday, far from the RNC. While not as powerful, the storm is cutting a path through the Gulf of Mexico that's eerily similar to Hurricane Katrina which devastated the region seven years ago to the day.

Widespread evacuations are in effect along the gulf coast and disaster relief coordinators are already planning for an expensive, lengthy clean up effort. Next time, maybe try praying for "no hurricane," not "hurricane over there instead."