Storms start to move out of Minnesota, continue for western Wisconsin

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

(AP) - With Hurricane Gustav just a day away from a
possible monster hit on New Orleans, the mayor Sunday pleaded with
the last of its residents to get out, imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew
on those who stay and warned looters they will be sent directly to
prison.

      The Big Easy increasingly took on the eeriness of a ghost town
as thousands heeded an mandatory evacuation order, and police and
National Guard troops clamped down on the city to prevent the kind
of lawlessness and chaos that followed Katrina three years ago.


      "Looters will go directly to jail. You will not get a pass this
time," Mayor Ray Nagin said. "You will not have a temporary stay
in the city. You will go directly to the Big House."


      Most were taking him seriously. The state changed traffic flow
so all highway lanes led out of New Orleans, and cars were packed
bumper-to-bumper heading north. 

Stores and restaurants shut down,
hotels closed and windows were boarded up. Some who planned to stay
changed their mind at the last second, not willing to risk the
worst.


      "I got scared at the last minute," said Ollie Hilson, 54, of
Marrero, a town on the west bank of the Mississippi River. 

She was
waiting for a bus in a gymnasium where the New Orleans Hornets
practice. She had a single plastic grocery bag with a change of
clothes and a few personal belongings, and waited with her two
nieces and their four children, all under the age of 3. 

"I was
worried about the kids. We just couldn't stay."


      Nagin has used stark language to get his message across to
residents, calling Gustav the "mother of all storms." Emergency
officials have repeatedly warned that those who stay are on their
own, and there will be no shelter of refuge like in Katrina, when
thousands waited helplessly for rescue in a squalid Superdome.


      Though Nagin's warnings are more severe than what forecasters
predict, it was unmistakable that Gustav posed a major threat to
partially rebuilt New Orleans. The storm has already killed more
than 80 people on its path through the Caribbean.


      Barreling toward the Gulf Coast with frightening strength and
size, Gustav was wavering between a Category 3 and 4 hurricane with
winds extending out 50 miles and tropical storm force winds as far
as 200 miles. The comparisons to Katrina come easily.


      Both are extraordinarily large storms. At times Katrina, one of
the five deadliest U.S. storms, stretched its tropical storm-force
winds out about 200 miles from its center. Hurricane force winds
extended about 90 miles.

      Both Gustav and Katrina intensified rapidly in the Gulf of
Mexico, but Katrina intensified after making landfall in Florida
while Gustav hit Cuba first. Forecasters say Gustav also is moving
more quickly than Katrina.

      "(Gustav) is a large system similar to Katrina. The difference,
at this moment, is that it's asymmetric. It doesn't have a uniform
coverage like Katrina," said Chris Sisko, a meteorologist for the
National Hurricane Center.


      President Bush canceled his appearance at the Republican
National Convention and will instead travel to Texas to meet with
emergency response personnel preparing for Gustav. 

Federal
authorities, faulted for a sluggish and inadequate response to
Hurricane Katrina, planned to have an on-the-ground presence.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was headed to the
region Sunday and planned to stay for the duration of the storm.


      Bush said he hoped to travel to Louisiana when conditions
permit.


      "The Army Corps of Engineers informs me that while the levees
are stronger than they've ever been, people across the Gulf Coast,
especially in New Orleans, need to understand that in a storm of
this size there are serious risks of significant flooding," Bush
said at FEMA headquarters. "My message to the people of the Gulf
Coast is: This storm is dangerous."


      The storm could bring a storm surge of up to 20 feet to the
coast and rainfall totals of up to 15 inches.

      At 11 a.m. EDT Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said Gustav
was a Category 3 storm centered about 325 miles southeast of the
mouth of the Mississippi River and moving northwest near 17 mph. 

A
hurricane warning was in effect for more than 500 miles of the Gulf
Coast from Cameron, La., near the Texas border to the
Alabama-Florida state line. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley issued a
mandatory evacuation order for some coastal areas of Mobile and
Baldwin counties.


      Residents in flood-prone southeast Texas fled, too. Sabine Pass
a port city most recently battered three years ago by Hurricane
Rita, was among the first communities ordered to leave. Port
Arthur, Texas, a refinery town of about 57,000 also badly damaged
during Rita, was virtually abandoned.


      In New Orleans, the last bus carrying residents without a way to
leave on their own would depart at 3 p.m. Sunday. Clouds were
already rolling in, and the skies were beginning to darken. Rain
could begin falling as early as Sunday night.


      Melissa Lee, who lives in Pearl River, a town near the boundary
of Mississippi and Louisiana, was driving away to as far as she
could make it Sunday. Before she left, she heard neighbors chopping
down trees with chain saws, trying to ensure the tall pines that
surrounded their homes wouldn't come crashing down.


      "I sent my son out with a camera and said, 'Go take pictures of
our backyard. Because it's going to look different when we get
back.'"

Gallery

Bush: No to convention, plans Gustav trip to Texas

McCains, Palin going to region threatened by storm

Republicans worry about convention as Gustav nears Gulf Coast

Gustav surges to a Cat. 4 storm, winds of 145 mph

Slideshow: Hurricane Gustav - preparation and destruction

With Hurricane Gustav just a day away from a
possible monster hit on New Orleans, the mayor Sunday pleaded with the last of its residents to get out and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew
on those who stay.

As Gustav nears, New Orleans becomes a ghost town

Go Deeper.

Like this?