The St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, LA is still standing and has little to no damage.

Sept. 3, 2005, 1:20AM

DIVINE INTERVENTION?

Some think city spared by power of prayer

By JAMES VARNEY
Times-picayune

NEW ORLEANS - In the garden behind St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square lies an incredible tangle of zig-zagging broken tree trunks and branches, mixed with smashed wrought iron fences.

But right in the middle, a statue of Jesus is still standing, unscathed by the storm, save for the left thumb and index finger, which are missing.

The missing digits immediately set off speculation of divine intervention.

New Orleans has a long history of praying to saints for guidance and protection in times of great peril.

On Saturday, Archbishop Alfred Hughes read a prayer over the radio asking for Our Lady's intervention to spare the city a direct hit by Hurricane Katrina.

Many in the French Quarter are now saying it was the hand of Jesus, the missing digits to be precise, that flicked the hurricane east just a little to keep the city from suffering a direct blow.

And the search is on for those missing fingers.

yeah and in the newspaper there is a picture of the statue and theres a tree that fell about a foot behind it.