Gustav Sends Gulf Coast Residents Fleeing

Mandatory New Orleans Evacuations Ordered For Sunday Morning

(CBS/AP)  Gustav plowed toward mainland Cuba Saturday as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane while both Cubans and Americans scrambled to flee the path of the fast-growing storm

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city on Saturday, directing residents still recovering from the devastation left behind three years ago from Hurricane Katrina to flee from the approaching Hurricane Gustav.

Nagin said an informal evacuation that has taken place for days becomes mandatory at 8 a.m. Sunday on the city's west bank. It becomes mandatory on the east bank at noon.

Forecasters said Gustav was just short of becoming a top-scale Category 5 hurricane as it powered its way toward Cuba. Authorities evacuated at least 300,000 people across the country, including western communities, cities near Havana and on the Isla de la Juventud, or Isle of Youth, an island of 87,000 people south of mainland Cuba.

By late Saturday night, Gustav's eye had crossed over Cuba into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Gustav had weakened slightly, but was expected to regain strength on Sunday, possibly becoming a Category 5 hurricane with winds above 155 mph as it spins toward the U.S. coast, where it was expected to make landfall on Monday.

Gustav, ripped through the Isle of Youth, causing extensive damage, according to Ana Isa Delgado, head of Civil Defense on the island. Delgado said gusts of wind tossed parked cars and buses into the air leaving only twisted wrecks, ripped doors from their hinges, and carried off roofs and water tanks, reports CBS News producer Portia Siegelbaum

Even areas considered secure were severely damaged and streets are virtually blocked with downed trees and rubbish. There was flooding in some low-lying areas but not in the main cities. Several people have been hospitalized with storm related injuries but no one is critical and there are no reports of deaths.

The hurricane was projected to plow into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico at full force Sunday, and make landfall along the U.S. coast anywhere from Texas to Mississippi as early as Monday afternoon, reports The Early Show weather anchor Dave Price. A hurricane watch was issued from Texas east to Florida, an area that includes New Orleans, which Hurricane Katrina devastated in 2005.

More than a million Americans took buses, trains, planes and cars as they streamed out of New Orleans and other coastal cities, where Katrina killed about 1,600 people.

Gustav already has killed 81 people by triggering floods and landslides in other Caribbean nations.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Gustav had sustained winds of 150 mph - with higher gusts - as the heart of the storm began hitting Cuba's outlying island province of Isla de Juventud, where officials cut power to many areas. (Visit CBSEyeMobile's Hurricane Center for more information on Gustav.)

In the Florida Keys, tropical storm warnings were posted in Monroe County from west of the Seven Mile Bridge westward to the Dry Tortugas.

Forecasters said there is a better-than-even chance that New Orleans will get slammed by the storm. That raised the likelihood people will have to flee, and the city suggested a full-scale mandatory evacuation call could come as soon as Sunday.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is scheduled to be in Louisiana Sunday morning to observe preparations in anticipation of the hurricane.

A day after marking the third anniversary of Katrina, thousands waited in line on a hot New Orleans day to board buses at the Union Passenger Terminal, reports CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan, hoping to avoid a similar tragedy.

"You won't see any buses stranded this time," said Nagin. "You won't see people stranded in the Superdome. Every step that we've gone through this process, we've adjusted and we have a better plan now."

Evacuation plans will even include planes on standby Sunday, when New Orleans airport shuts down at 6 p.m, reports Sreenivasan.

Cars packed with clothes, boxes and pet carriers drove north among heavy traffic on Interstate 55, a major route out of the city. Gas stations around the city hummed. And nursing homes and hospitals began sending patients farther inland.

"I'm getting out of here. I can't take another hurricane," said Ramona Summers, 59, whose house flooded during Hurricane Katrina three years ago. She hurried to help friends gather their belongings. Her car was already packed for Gonzales, nearly 60 miles away to the west of New Orleans.

Joseph Jones Jr., 61, wore a towel over his head to block the sun. He'd been in line at the bus terminal for over two hours, but wasn't complaining. During Katrina, he had been stranded on a highway overpass.

"I don't like it. Going someplace you don't know, people you don't know," Jones said. "And then when you come back, is your house going to be OK?"

At a press conference Saturday afternoon, Nagin said buses and trains have already started moving residents out of the city, and urged those who are disabled, elderly or need medical help in leaving the area to register for help in accessing transportation to transit points.

Seventeen pick-ups points have been set up throughout the city where residents can board buses.

Authorities hoped to move 30,000 people. So far 20,000 people have registered for transportation, so many that pre-registration crashed the system, according to the mayor.

As of 1 p.m. this afternoon, according to Mayor Nagin, 1,100-1,200 people had been evacuated on 22 buses, most going to Shreveport or Alexandria. Another 1,500 people had boarded trains to Memphis.

"Once the storm gets into the Gulf, I think that's when we're going to see another surge (of people seeking to evacuate)," he said.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal issued an executive order closing schools in central and north Louisiana Tuesday and Wednesday to free up shelter space and bus resources for local residents and residents in south Louisiana

In Mississippi, Governor Haley Barbour said he has agreed with Louisiana officials to open all four lanes of Mississippi interstates 55 and 59 to evacuees from Louisiana.

Barbour says the contraflow will take effect at 4 a.m. Sunday and run at least until midnight. He says hours could be extended if traffic remains heavy.

Earlier Saturday, Nagin told all tourists in the city it was time to leave.

"We need to get them out of the way so we can deal with our senior citizens and those who need our assistance," he added.

With tourism being the economic engine of the city, employing 69,000 people and generating $5 billion a year in spending, the evacuation of tourists carries a heavy economic toll on the city, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston.

Police and firefighters were set to go street-to-street with bull horns over the weekend to help direct people where to go. Unlike Hurricane Katrina, there will be no shelter of last resort in the Superdome. The doors there will be locked.

Those among New Orleans' estimated 310,000 to 340,000 residents who ignore orders to leave accept "all responsibility for themselves and their loved ones," the city's emergency preparedness director, Jerry Sneed, has warned.

Though he strongly urged residents to leave, Nagin said a curfew would be imposed for those who stayed to watch over their property and possessions. "If you decide to stay, you will be required to stay inside of your property," he said.

He also said there would be double the number of police officers and National Guard prepared to patrol the streets once the storm hits. Fifteen Guardsmen are reported already in New Orleans.

"Emotionally can we handle it? I think there is a lot of fragileness about our psyche right now in this city," Nagin said. "I wouldn't be honest with you if I told you something different.

"It's going to be a tough but New Orleaneans are very resilient and they are very tough and we'll get through this."

[twixcon]

Keithle1, you asked me, "what''s so great about republicans?".
If you read my post you will see that I am neutral on that question. I said that we''ll get an opportunity to evaluate the relative merits of the two parties by contrasting their reactions to Katrina vs Gustav.

I then acknowledged that Nagin would unfortunately be a common factor which by itself could screw both up.In stating that Obama would try to blame McCain in some way , shape or form I was merely stating the obvious.

I don''t see any statement that implies that the republicans are "great". Just because the dems are incompetent doesn''t imply that the repubs are competent. They do however have a chance to demonstrate competence if Gustav wreaks havoc.

I mention this because a prevalent theme in the Obama campaign has been in effect..."Bush was bad so elect us..." as though Bush''s having been bad somehow guarantees that Obama will be good, or even better. It doesn''t. Obama might well be even worse than Bush, then we''d really be screwed!

But thank you for reading the post, Keith.

[berniepeders]

...You sir are NOT American.. you don''t even have the right to claim to be an American. Posted by skyk at 10:35 AM

Who are YOU to decide that, skyk? Get over yourself.

[zogtheobvious]

RE to DEMWATCHER

Democrats take no responsibility??! LOL Did you READ my original post? I place the blame on both sides of the fence. On Nagin and Blanco, yes... but you cannot ignore the footdragging and total INDIFFERENCE displayed by the Administration - starting at the very, very top. The Democrats screwed up the storm preparedness, but you Republicans screwed up the aftermath. Accept it and move on.

You cannot bury the facts with your false outrage and your sputtering, name-calling non-arguments. You accuse me of the very thing you are doing: refusing to acknowledge your own party''s complicity in this.

You have resorted to the same thing all Republicans do when confronted with those pesky facts: You bluster and call names and spout talking points. I posted no talking points. I posted three pages of FACTS my friend, so save your "I know you are but what am I?" style of arguing for someone who gives a ***.

You, Demwatcher, are a blind, Republican shill. You are doing Karl Rove''s work for him by buying into his spin and outright lies.

Rant all you want, I''m done with you.

[tootall10142]

The volunteer agencies in fort smith arkansas are out in the hundreds preparing for more to arrive at ft. chaffee ar.The cbs people didnt mention them . I wonder why the people in that area served the katrina victims well and recieved high praise from the governor and the president . The evacs were happy to see such kind out reach to so many strangers.Not one crime was committed by any of the evacuees and the local merchants poured out a half a million in charity donations.The writers for cbs are lazy and shed glory on the states that feed thier corporation.

[lazareth-2009]

Maybe will get lucky and N.O. will be washed out to sea. People are idiots for living in a cess pool like that anyway. I do hope everyone is evacuated first.

[jodyrae4]

Just saw Nagin on the news telling people this is the storm of the century! To leave! Acted more like a mayor this time... instead of an idiot..
I still can''t believe they re-elected him..

[jodyrae4]

Wonder if the people of New Orleans will help each other this time....hummmm

[mcvet-1]

As usual, liberals use a weather disaster for political purposes to bash Bush.

Sickening people.

Posted by GarbageStopr at 06:42 AM : Aug 31, 2008

NO, what AMERICAN''s are doing is remembering the INCOMPETENCE and HORRIBLE FACTS of how BUSH and the FASCIST responded to a Storm! Put away the swastika and try being an AMERICAN for a change! Now stand... let''s let Shooter and the Fuhrer know you are out here attacking those "Liberals". Don''t worry we won''t tell anyone you aren''t intelligent enough to even know the meaning of the word!! SIEG HEIL McBush

[mcvet-1]

LEAVE NOW!!!THATS WHAT EVACUATION MEANS!

Just don''''t come here. We don''''t want your criminals or you culture of "gimme some more"

Posted by mjvw2 at 07:47 AM : Aug 31, 2008

You know the one''s who come where ever it is you live will be "Criminals" or "gimme some more" people because?? Do you know even one of these people? Have any of them ever asked you personally for anything? Oh! I get it!! Your a Simple minded Fascist and you are playing with your Magic Swastika again.. never mind you can go on with your Cross Burning now! By the way do you freaks still burn those things?? Sieg Heil McSlime

[lewiston14]

Here is a link from intellicast as to the track. You will see a white shape sort of an S right at the waters edge. Cany you tell me where NO is in relation to that S figure. Is it east or west? How far? I can tell florida and texas but the smaller states are hard to see

http://www.intellicast.com/Storm/Hurricane/Active.aspx?storm=1&type=track

[mjvw2]

LEAVE NOW!!!THATS WHAT EVACUATION MEANS!

Just don''t come here. We don''t want your criminals or you culture of "gimme some more"

[twistedsister1959]

Levees.org Watch the video see if you live near any of the top levees in the country that are failing and then pack your bags. It isn''t just New Orleans that is threatened. God save south Louisiana. It looks to be another Hurricane Betsy. It is going to be a rough couple of weeks down here. Hot and muggy with no electricity. Yuck.

[jodyrae4]

LEAVE NOW!!!THATS WHAT EVACUATION MEANS!

[tmittelstaed]

Puget Sound, (Seattle and Tacoma and several other cities) is on a earth quake fault AND most would be wiped out in an eruption of the volcano known as Mt. Raineer. Portland Oregon is in the same fix, on a fault line and has several volcanoes near it. (They no longer say a volcano is extinct just because it has not erupted in 50 years.)
----------------------------------------------

It''s all about risk. Risk of earthquake hitting any given year in those areas is low. Risk of hurricane hitting N.O. in any given year is now very high.

[patriotic9]

People were criticizing FEMA for not providing rebuilding money last week. *** good thing they didn''''t - it would have just been taxpayer money down the drain.
Posted by tmittelstaed at 06:30 AM : Aug 31, 2008

So you have problem with US tax money to be spent on US Citizens, but you see no problem in spending $3 billion yearly on a NON-AMERICAN CAUSE, NON-AMERICAN GOD CHOSEN PEOPLE and a NON-AMERICAN HOLY LAND, to buy HATRED, TERRORISM and 9/11 for GOD-NEGLECTED AMERICANS and UNHOLY LAND UNITED STATES.

[garbagestopr]

As usual, liberals use a weather disaster for political purposes to bash Bush.

Sickening people.

[keithle1]

New Orleans has nothing to worry about. Fidel Castro & North Korea''s "Dear Leader" have already offered their help. Upon hearing this, Bush sighed with relief & said "Whew!" He thought he might actually have to do something.

[tmittelstaed]

Why the hell are there people in New Orleans? Katrina established the futility of building homes under sea level, and depending on leeves. And a huge number of people after Katrina simply abandonded foundations of homes swept away.
Consider that the week after Katrina if you had short-sold the remains of your home then, that today your credit would be clean.
People were criticizing FEMA for not providing rebuilding money last week. *** good thing they didn''t - it would have just been taxpayer money down the drain.
All we can hope now is the people being evacuated from New Orleans stay away and don''t come back. The levees around it should be breached and the land allowed to go back to the seafloor that it came from. I don''t see why my tax dollars should be paying to rebuild a city that gets washed away every 3 years.

[keithle1]

Excuse me, twixcon, what''s so great about Republicans?
Did I miss something?

[keithle1]

Take your 8 kids & get outta town!