As it prepares to mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has been forced to draw up an emergency evacuation plan to deal with tropical storm Gustav, which is was predicted to reach hurricane strength in the Gulf of Mexico.
The storm has already killed 22 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and today it moved away from the Central American coast and into the Caribbean.
The eye of the storm was expected to pass Jamaica today as it sweeps towards the United States. The National Hurricane Centre in Miami predicts that it will grow in power as it approaches Louisiana over the weekend.
US National Guard troops are standing by as residents prepare to mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, left the Democratic National Convention in Denver to return home for the preparations.
Some of the residents, who were displaced personally or knew victims of Katrina, were watching the weather forecast with trepidation.
“I’m panicking,” said Evelyn Fuselier of Chalmette, whose home was submerged in 14 feet of floodwater when Katrina hit.
Ms Fuselier returned to her house exactly one year ago, and now she is terrified that her ordeal could be repeated: “I keep thinking: Did the Corps fix the levees? Is my house going to flood again? Am I going to have to go through all this again?”
Govwernor Bobby Jindal has declared a state of emergency to lay the groundwork for federal assistance, and put 3,000 National Guard troops on standby.
City officials have begun preliminary planning to evacuate and lock down the city to ensure there would be no repeat of the disaster following the 2005 storm. There will be no mass shelter like the one at the Superdome last time around. Instead the state has arranged for buses and trains to take people further away from the coast.
Steve Weaver, 82, and his wife stayed for Katrina and had to be plucked off the roof of their house by a Coast Guard helicopter. This time, Mr Weaver has no inclination to ride out the storm.
“Everybody learned a lesson about staying, so the highways will be twice as packed this time,” he said.
Since Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers has spent billions of dollars to improve the levee system, but because of two quiet hurricane seasons, the flood walls have never been tested.
A day after stalling off Haiti’s coast, Gustav was today centred about 80 miles east of Kingston, Jamaica, and moving toward the west-southwest near 8 mph.
The National Hurricane Centre expects the storm to pass very close to Jamaica later today. Its maximum sustained winds were near 50 mph.
Forecasters have predicted that Gustav could strengthen to a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 111 mph or higher in the coming days before landing on US soil somewhere between the Florida Panhandle and Texas.
The storm formed on Monday before going onshore near the southern Haitian city of Jacmel with top winds near 90 mph on Monday. It triggered flooding and landslides that killed 23 people in the Caribbean.
It weakened into a tropical storm and appeared headed for Jamaica, though it is likely to grow stronger in the coming days by drawing energy from warm, open water.
The Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency, criticized in 2005 for its slow response to Katrina, is working with state officials to prepare for the storm. FEMA said it moved 2.4 million liters of water in 137 trucks, 4 million meals in 203 trucks, 478 electric generators and 267 truckloads of blankets and cots into position for distribution in the Gulf Coast states.
Mayor Ray Nagin said that the city's protective ring of levees isn't fully strengthened after some parts failed when Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005, contributing to floods that covered 80 percent of the city.
``Although we have made strong strides in rebuilding our infrastructure, the levees have not been fully repaired and we have an $800 million budget gap to complete our sewage and water systems,'' Nagin said in a statement.
There will be no ``shelters of last resort,'' such as the Superdome or the Convention Center, where thousands took refuge during Katrina, the mayor said in a televised interview last night. Police will roam neighborhoods making sure people are out, and trains, buses and airplanes will be pressed into service for those without transportation, he said.
Governor's Request
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal requested a ``pre-landfall'' federal disaster declaration last night, saying the storm may overwhelm state resources, according to his Web site. Jindal readied 3,000 National Guardsmen to help emergency efforts in the state, and 700 buses were on standby to evacuate as many as 35,000 people.
Gustav, which had maximum sustained of almost 70 miles (113 kilometers) per hour, may intensify into a Category 3 hurricane or stronger as it enters the Gulf of Mexico by the weekend, the U.S. government projects. Category 3 hurricanes have maximum sustained winds of at least 111 miles per hour.
The storm was 80 miles east of Kingston, Jamaica, just before 8 a.m. Miami time today, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been working to improve the levee system that holds back water surrounding New Orleans, which sits below sea level. Work won't be completed until 2011, according to its Web site.
Jazz Funeral
Katrina was the most economically destructive hurricane in U.S. history, costing the Gulf Coast states as much as $125 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The population of New Orleans dropped to about 250,000, about half of what it was before the storm. It is now back up to about 300,000.
New Orleans is planning a traditional jazz funeral to remember Katrina's victims for 8 a.m. tomorrow beginning at Canal Street and Carrolton Avenue, followed by a ceremonial bell ringing at the Katrina Memorial Cemetery. A candlelight ceremony is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Jackson Square.
Executives of New Orleans hotels have met to discuss contingency plans, said Kelly Schulz, vice president for communications at the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau.
``At this point, we're business as usual,'' Schultz said.
The Southern Decadence Festival, a gay and lesbian gathering that draws ``several thousand people every Labor Day,'' was still on schedule, Schulz said.
Oil Prices
Nagin said New Orleans residents who may need assistance evacuating should register with the city. Colonel Jerry Sneed, director of the city's Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Department, said two days ago that 7,000 people had done so. He estimated 30,000 people would require assistance.
The system was forecast to head west-southwest at 6 mph. As much as 25 inches (64 centimeters) of rain may fall in parts of Jamaica, Haiti and the Cayman Islands.
Crude oil for October delivery rose $1.50, or 1.3 percent, to $119.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Offshore fields in the Gulf accounted for 26 percent of total U.S. crude production and 12 percent of natural gas output in April, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
Red Cross
``Several thousand'' of the almost 20,000 workers on offshore platforms are being evacuated, said Ted Falgout, director of Port Fourchon in Louisiana, a staging area for offshore workers.
Federal agencies that have announced contingency plans include the Transportation Department, which is monitoring evacuation routes; the Transportation Security Administration, which is preparing to deploy airport security teams; and the National Guard Bureau, which is assessing resources for potential mobilization.
The American Red Cross said it has four management teams ready and positioned 19 emergency response vehicles in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. It has 196 additional vehicles on standby nationwide.
In New Orleans, Brennan's restaurant in the French Quarter was accepting telephone reservations. At Molly's at the Market, which received media attention for staying open throughout the aftermath of Katrina, a person answering the telephone had heard a storm might hit her city.
``People are beginning to talk about it,'' said Marsha Kerasidis, a bartender at Molly's. ``This is my first so I don't know what to expect.''
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