Ryan - First of all....my sincerest condolences on the loss your great-grandparents.

Secondly in response to your question:
[quote does anyone know if a storm like Katrina would be worse if it only lets say south florida or north carolina or long island...like can certain hurricanes have greater damages and impacts, at the samee intensity, in a different location?

If I am interpreting this question correctly, the answer is: Absolutely. Take Hurrican Andrew for example. While it did billions in damage and destroyed all that it did, it did so in an area (at the time) that was not as heavily populated as it is today. If you took Andrew and moved it north to Broward Co. (Ft. Lauderdale) and sent it right up Broward Blvd.(the heart of downtown Ft. Laud), that is more densely populated..not only with homes but high-rise office buildings, downtown courthouses, convention center, etcetera...the dollar amount of damage would have been even more stagering. So in a nut shell, yes, the same storm can do different damage (dollar wise) depending upon the location of landfall.

As far as Katrina goes, I think it's safe to say she couldn't have had a more worse effect on any other area than the one she did. While her winds were severely damaging and that alone would have been devestating...it's her tidal surge (and the myriad of problems that that alone brings to the table) that's made the situation has horrific as it is. It's that surge coupled with the low (in places below) elevation that have made this so utterly destructive.