Category 4 Hurricane Hilary — and its latter incarnations of a tropical depression and, ultimately, large wet weather pattern careening across North America — could have been much worse than it was. A lot of rain has fallen,but perhaps half of what was feared. There has notbeen much appreciable wind. The existing flood-control infrastructure has been holding. Serious flooding and mudslides have happened across a large area, and we can’t count up all the damage until sometime after this is over. But for now, Hilary stands as an event that is much more significant in what it means than in what it did.