New Orleans begins evacuations ahead of Gustav
Desperate to avoid a repeat of the Hurricane Katrine catastrophe in 2005, New Orleans prepared to begin mandatory evacuations on Saturday ahead of a deadly new hurricane, Gustav.
By Agencies |
NEW ORLEANS : Desperate to avoid a repeat of the Hurricane Katrine catastrophe in 2005, New Orleans prepared to begin mandatory evacuations on Saturday ahead of a deadly new hurricane, Gustav.
Bumper-to-bumper traffic clogged roads leading out of the city to the north and east, as the dangerous category three hurricane barreled toward the Gulf of Mexico after leaving 85 people dead in Caribbean nations.
The National Hurricane Center said Gustav could strengthen to a category four storm before hitting the US coast late Monday or early Tuesday.
Coastal parishes in New Orleans were due to begin the first mandatory evacuations at noon (1600 GMT), as residents boarded up windows and piled sandbags to build temporary levees, three years after Hurricane Katrina, which breached levees protecting the low-lying city, killing some 1,500 people.
"We can take about five-and-a-half feet (1.67 meters) of water above sea level, but we can't take the nine to 12 feet (2.7 to 3.7 meters) they're talking about," Tim Kerner, mayor of Jean Lafitte in lower Jefferson Parish, told the New Orleans Time Picayune.
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The overall population of greater New Orleans is estimated at more than one million people. It was not immediately clear how many people would be affected by Saturday's mandatory evacuation orders. Voluntary and assisted evacuations began Friday, but not all residents were eager to pack up and leave.
"I'm supposed to be leaving but I keep waiting just a little longer to see what the storm is going to do. I know it's a risk," New Orleans resident Sheile Robertson told AFP.
She said she escaped a day before Katrina struck, destroying her home, and now lives in an apartment with a half dozen people.
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US President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana and Texas, empowering federal authorities to lead disaster relief efforts in the two states, and on Saturday called governors in the storm's path. "This morning, President Bush called four governors whose states are in the potential path of Hurricane Gustav," said spokesman Scott Stanzel, adding that those states included Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas.
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"President Bush called to make sure the states were receiving all the assistance they needed from the federal government. He told each of the governors that federal officials were monitoring Hurricane Gustav very closely," Stanzel said. The president "pledged the full support of the federal government."
Bush's approval ratings in 2005 plummeted amid widespread criticism that he paid too little attention to Katrina, which smashed poorly-built levees surrounding the city, causing massive floods that destroyed tens of thousands of homes and killed nearly 1,500 people.
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