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New Orleans braces for Hurricane Gustav

August 30, 2008 12:48pm
Article from: Reuters

* Hurricane Gustav heads for New Orleans
* Killed up to 77 people in the Caribbean
* Pictures: Bracing for Hurricane Gustav

NEW Orleans residents have paused to mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's devastating blow even as they faced a possible evacuation order ahead of another potentially powerful storm.

City residents, many still recovering from the destruction of Katrina, could be ordered to evacuate tomorrow to escape next week's expected landfall of Hurricane Gustav, Mayor Ray Nagin said.

Gustav strengthened to a hurricane overnight after it killed up to 77 people in the Caribbean in mudslides and floods.

As it churns into the Gulf of Mexico's warm waters it could grow to a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, with wind speeds up to 209 kph.

It would be the most powerful hurricane to hit the US Gulf Coast since 2005.

The storm's current projected track takes it into the low-lying Terrebonne Parish southwest of New Orleans, one of the least-protected areas on the Louisiana coast.

Marking Katrina's anniversary

City officials paused their Gustav preparations to hold an abbreviated ceremony to mark the third anniversary of Katrina with a symbolic burial service for more than 80 unidentified victims of the 2005 storm.

About 150 residents gathered in a cemetery as pallbearers guided a single silver casket from a horse-drawn carriage.

Bells rang through the city at 9:38 am, the time on August 29, 2005, when the city's levees began to give way. Federal officials say the levees are stronger but gaps still exist that leave some of the neighborhoods hardest hit by the 2005 flooding vulnerable.

Katrina's waters flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, killed 1500 people along the Gulf Coast and caused at least $80 billion in damages.

Preparing for Gustav

US President George W. Bush, who was widely criticised for a slow federal response to Katrina, has declared an emergency in Louisiana.

Governors of Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi also declared emergencies to allow them to call up troops and mobilise emergency efforts.

Gustav could bring a storm surge up to 30 feet (9 metres) when it comes ashore on Tuesday morning, according to federal officials.

That could mean voluntary or mandatory evacuations for the four states in Gustav's path - Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama - the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.

"We fear for our lives," said Edgar Gomez, a Venezuelan engineer working for ConocoPhillips, who was at the New Orleans airport with his wife and three daughters.

"We have no experience with this kind of a storm and after Katrina there is no way we are staying."

In all, 11.5 million people are in the path of the storm, according to the US Census Bureau.

Louisiana will likely order evacuations from some low-lying coastal areas today, and probably shift traffic flow patterns to carry all vehicles away from coastal regions on Sunday, Governor Bobby Jindal said.

"It does look like this will be a strong storm," Mr Jindal said, leaving the door open for broader evacuations.

At least two low-lying parishes near New Orleans, St Charles and Lafourche plan mandatory evacuation as of thisd evening.

In a bid to avoid the 2005 spectacle of desperate city residents crammed into the New Orleans Superdome, the government has lined up hundreds of buses and trains to evacuate 30,000 people who can't leave the city on their own.

About 1500 Louisiana National Guard troops were now in New Orleans.