| Gulf Coast residents flee 'extremely dangerous' Gustav |
| Saturday, August 30, 2008 |
BELLE CHASE, Louisiana (CNN) -- A hurricane watch was issued Saturday afternoon for southeastern Texas to the Alabama-Florida border as Hurricane Gustav's sustained winds reached 150 mph on its expected path to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The watch means hurricane conditions are possible within about 36 hours, the National Hurricane Center said.
Thousands fled as Gustav strengthened to a strong Category 4 hurricane.
At 5 p.m. ET, the eye of the storm was about 130 miles (210 km) east-northeast of Cuba's western tip and moving northwest about 15 mph.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, referred to the ferocity of Gustav's winds. "This makes Gustav an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale," it said. Watch a report on the hurricane watch »
Hurricanes are ranked 1 to 5 in intensity on the Saffir-Simpson scale. A Category 4 has winds of 131 to 155 mph and can cause extreme damage.
Hundreds of people lined up for buses and trains to take them out of New Orleans and thousands of other Gulf Coast residents drove inland, clogging major highways.
In New Orleans, Louisiana, still recovering from Katrina, anxiety was high Saturday as residents fled, leaving behind a virtual ghost town of boarded-up homes and empty streets.
"I am strongly, strongly encouraging everyone in this city to evacuate," Mayor Ray Nagin said Saturday. "Start the process now." Watch Nagin urge people to leave »
At the Union Passenger Terminal in downtown New Orleans, people began arriving as early as 5:30 a.m., forming a line that snaked behind the main Amtrak terminal. Armed patrols and Humvees circled the crowds of people, many who waited as long as 2½ hours, enduring the heat and relentless sun, unsure of their destination.
New Orleans officials had designated 17 sites for people without transportation to board buses to take them to the terminal, where they will be moved to shelters outside New Orleans. However, scores of residents went directly to the terminal, carrying one bag, as the city had instructed. The snafu prompted confusion, as did a glitch in the computer system that was being used to register people. Watch people flee New Orleans in buses »
Gov. Bobby Jindal suspended registration at the terminal and instructed people to register when they arrive at shelters, Nagin said.
By afternoon, 1,100 to 1,200 people had left the city on those buses, Nagin said.
"I'm not sure where I'm going," Margie Hawkins of New Orleans said. "My last 24 hours have been somewhat worrisome and very, very prayerful, because this is a very serious threat, and it's a lot of people to get to safe ground or be safe where they are."
In addition, the city arranged with Amtrak for more than 7,000 seats to evacuate the elderly by train. About 1,500 people left for Memphis, Tennessee, Nagin said.
There were also crowds at New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport, which the city plans to keep open through 6 p.m. CT Sunday. Both Delta Air Lines and AirTran Airways said they planned to continue flights in and out of New Orleans until the airport is closed.
Buses arrived unloading evacuees, many of whom said they had no idea where they were going.
Vehicles jammed Interstate 10 headed west toward Texas. Cars also clogged Interstates 55 and 59 heading north out of eastern Louisiana. Heavy volume was also reported on Interstates 65 and 59 as Mississippi evacuees streamed north.
The hurricane's western eye reached the Cuban Isle of Youth on Saturday, and thousands of anxious Cubans boarded up their homes and sought safety.
It is projected to pass over western Cuba later in the day and to move into the southern Gulf of Mexico early Sunday and into the central Gulf by early Monday, according to forecasters. Gustav could make landfall as a Category 3 or 4 on the U.S. Gulf Coast late Monday or Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said.
The storm called up uneasy memories Friday of the deadly 2005 hurricane season, particularly of Katrina, as Gulf Coast residents found themselves preparing for Gustav on the third anniversary of that devastating storm, August 29.
Residents and officials were determined not to be caught off-guard again.
"I'm very worried that the city is going to get hit again, and I don't want to be here when that happens," New Orleanian Sara Suggs said. Residents, at least initially, praised the efforts of the government.
"I think it's great that they are on top of the game early this time," said Fred Boyd of New Orleans. "I think a lot more people will be satisfied this time than last time."
Unlike the situation during Katrina, there will be no "shelter of last resort," the city said. In 2005, the city's Louisiana Superdome housed thousands of New Orleanians who couldn't, or didn't, heed the mandatory evacuation order.
The arena -- which grew dark, hot and increasingly fetid after the electricity failed and the plumbing was overwhelmed in the storm -- became a symbol of the disaster and the much-maligned government response to it.
When Katrina hit, more than 1,800 people died in five states, 1,577 of them in Louisiana.
As the storm began to track westward, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Friday that there is "a little bit less certainty than there was yesterday" of a direct hit to New Orleans or other populated areas in the state. But he urged Louisianans to be prepared for the very real possibility of another strike.
More than a dozen parishes have declared states of emergency, he said, adding that several coastal parishes began voluntary evacuations Friday and would continue mandatory evacuations Saturday.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour announced Friday that Hurricane Katrina victims living in government-issued trailers or mobile homes along his state's coast would begin evacuating Saturday.
Notice was being given to people living in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers or mobile homes, as well as people living in more permanent structures known as Mississippi cottages, he said.
About 4,300 families live in FEMA trailers or mobile homes, and 2,800 live in Mississippi cottages, the governor's office said. |
posted by moderator  Londen time 11:15 PM |
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