Louisiana Begins Evacuation as Gustav Gains Strength

By Jerry Hart and Brian K. Sullivan

Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Louisiana began voluntary evacuations as Hurricane Gustav strengthened off western Cuba and threatened to become the biggest storm to strike the U.S. Gulf Coast since Katrina and Rita three years ago.

New Orleans evacuated about 1,200 people by bus and 1,500 more by train, Mayor C. Ray Nagin said today at a press conference. The storm may reach Louisiana as early as Sept. 1 before moving into eastern Texas, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

``My wife is panicked,'' 40-year-old Kurt Wells said as he packed his family's two cars in front of their St. Roch Avenue home in New Orleans. ``She says she doesn't want to die here.''

Governor Bobby Jindal said the state may make highways one way leaving the area as early as today. Traffic was bumper-to- bumper leading away from the city.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center declared Gustav an ``extremely dangerous'' Category 4 hurricane after maximum winds reached 145 miles (230 kilometers) an hour as of 2 p.m. Miami time. The storm is moving northwest at 14 mph and will pass over Cuba today before it emerges into the southern Gulf of Mexico tomorrow. It will strengthen and reach the Louisiana coast the night of Sept. 1, the hurricane center said.

``Gustav has the potential to generate much more damage than Katrina did,'' said Jim Rouiller, a meteorologist with Planalytics Inc., a forecaster in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

Deaths

Gustav led to the deaths of 51 people in Haiti, Agence France-Presse reported, and at least 11 in Jamaica. In the Dominican Republic, eight people died in a landslide, the country's Center of Emergency Operations said on its Web site.

In New Orleans, 13 city buses lined up across from City Hall, a block away from the Louisiana Superdome, where people took shelter in 2005.

Valerie Arnold, 40, sat on the sidewalk smoking a cigarette before her bus left. She had three sets of clothes and her state- issued identification card. She didn't know where the bus was headed. What worried her was whether the city will bring her back, said Arnold, a hairdresser.

``Everyone who is transported will have a ride back to the city,'' Nagin said. Evacuees are going to Shreveport and Alexandria, the mayor said.

On Canal Street, usually thick with tourists, few pedestrians are out. Some businesses are boarded up with sheets of plywood.

`The Plague'

``It's starting to look like the plague here,'' a passing bicyclist yells.

Ace Hardware Corp. stocked an Alabama warehouse with 120 days' worth of batteries, generators, flashlights and other emergency supplies for its 173 stores in Gustav's path, said Joe McMahon, an inventory manager.

``I don't know if people are having flashbacks to Katrina,'' McMahon said. ``But we're seeing really large demand.''

At a Wal-Mart Supercenter on College Drive in Baton Rouge, the state capital about 60 miles northwest of New Orleans, Bernadette McLeod was stocking up.

``I am a Katrina survivor,'' said McLeod, who used to live in New Orleans. She was preparing to leave for Dallas to stay with her daughter. ``I am going to let Gustav have his way, and Bernadette is on her way.''

The Louisiana evacuations are voluntary so far. Residents will be required to leave coastal areas late today, and Alabama, Mississippi and Texas will follow tomorrow, Harvey Johnson, FEMA's deputy administrator, said in Washington yesterday.

Mandatory Evacuation

If the storm continues on its current path, New Orleans will order a mandatory evacuation, Nagin said today. People who don't leave after that must stay on their property, he said.

``Get out. And the next time you hear from us it is going to be `Get the heck out,''' Nagin said. He encouraged tourists to leave right away.

The parishes of St. Charles and St. Bernard expect to order mandatory evacuations today, they said on their Web sites. Calcasieu Parish expects mandatory relocations tomorrow.

Oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc are evacuating workers and shutting offshore platforms and refineries along the coast. The Gulf produces about a quarter of U.S. oil and 14 percent of natural gas, government data show.

The Federal Emergency Management Administration assembled 2.4 million liters of water, 4 million meals and 267 truckloads of bedding earlier this week. It's working with state and local officials to avoid the criticism it got for being unprepared in 2005, when Katrina flooded New Orleans and killed 1,800 people.

Hospital Staff

Tulane Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Robert Lynch said the hospital in New Orleans will retain about 325 doctors, nurses and staff during the storm. He said it rebuilt generators after Katrina and could function for a week on its own.

``We are much better prepared to deal with a hurricane than we were before Katrina,'' Lynch said.

The Army Corps of Engineers stockpiled 400 sandbags weighing as much as 7,000 pounds (3,175 kilograms) each to repair any New Orleans levees that are breached by Gustav, said Bill Irwin, the Corps's FEMA liaison.

Katrina damaged the ring of barriers surrounding the below- sea-level city in 2005, flooded 80 percent of the area and forced 250,000 residents to flee. It was the most destructive storm in U.S. history, causing $80 billion of damage.

George W. Bush declared a state of emergency for Louisiana yesterday and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local efforts. Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana issued state emergency and disaster declarations and alerted National Guard units.

The hurricane center also is monitoring Tropical Storm Hanna, which was about 265 miles east of Grand Turk and moving west at 8 mph as of 2 p.m. Miami time. The system had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, the center said.

In Baton Rouge, today's football game between Louisiana State University and Appalachian State University was rescheduled to 10 a.m. from 4 p.m. Back at the Wal-Mart Supercenter, Pam Calhoun was helping Arnie Hook load his SUV before the game.

``A lot of people are coming up from New Orleans and going to the game and then staying,'' Calhoun said. ``It's part of the evacuation plan.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Jerry Hart in Miami at jhart@bloomberg.net; Brian K. Sullivan in New Orleans at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net.