New Orleans Ordered Evacuated As 'Mother of All Storms' Nears

August 31, 2008

NEW ORLEANS, LA (WALL STREET JOURNAL) - The mayor of New Orleans ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city as Hurricane Gustav grew in ferocity, while the governor of Louisiana urged residents across the state to get out harm's way.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Gustav weakened slightly over Cuba and again over the Gulf of Mexico but was expected to regain strength as it moves over warm waters toward the U.S. coast, possibly becoming a top-scale Category 5 hurricane later Sunday.

A hurricane warning was issued for parts of the northern Gulf Coast - including the city of New Orleans - by the NHC. The public advisory called for disaster preparations to be rushed to completion. Even after slowing to Category 3 status before sunrise, Gustav packed top winds near 125 mph.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told residents of the city's West Bank, which is threatened by weak levees along at least one canal, they must evacuate starting Sunday at 8 a.m., while those in the rest of the city must leave starting at noon.

Various agencies provided containers to aid the transportation of pets so they are not left behind, a major reason many refused to evacuate during Hurricane Katrina.

"I must tell you this is the mother of all storms...I'm not sure we've ever seen anything like it," he said at a press conference Saturday evening.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, meanwhile, said the state on Saturday was in the process of calling 195,000 residents that live south of Interstate 10 to encourage them to heed a rash of mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders.

Gov. Jindal said National Hurricane Center officials told him the storm "could be as bad as it gets," and that the tidal surge could produce "flooding even worse than we saw in Katrina."

The mandatory evacuation orders were issued as early as noon Saturday in Plaquemines and St. Charles parishes, with a host of other parishes, including Orleans, posting similar orders through the afternoon.

Forecasters currently expect Gustav to make landfall in central Lousiana, considerably west of New Orleans. But they caution that the storm's path could change, and Mr. Nagin said Gustav posed a "grave" threat to the West Bank, which did not flood during Katrina. Some levees will not be able to withstand the storm, although the city's pumps will operate through the storm, he said.

Mr. Nagin said that 50% of New Orleans residents have already left the city, including between 9,000 and 10,000 elderly, ill and others needing special assistance who were evacuated starting Friday. The city on Saturday began evacuating those with no transport of their own by bus and train to shelters in Louisiana, Texas, and Memphis, Tenn.

Across the state, 54 of Louisiana's 64 parishes have already declared states of emergency, including Caddo and Bossier, tucked into the far northwestern corner of the state.

Gov. Jindal said computer models are increasingly narrowing the point of Gustav's pending fury on the south-central Louisiana coast, and that the Hurricane Center told him it could cross the shore as a Category 3 or 4 storm. The current track puts New Orleans as well as the state capitol, Baton Rouge, on the northeastern side of the storm, the worst quadrant in a hurricane.

"New Orleans will not have a shelter of last resort," the governor said. "We don't want people waiting to get out."

At 8 a.m. Saturday, the state began evacuating people by bus and rail from various areas in New Orleans and other parishes hard hit by Katrina. Gov. Jindal said in some cases people began queuing up hours in advance.

But the state had to intervene in some instances to cut through what the Governor called "bureaucracy." Some shelters, he said, didn't want to accept evacuees if the shelter didn't have information about the person before their arrival. In other instances passengers traveling by train out of New Orleans were being wanded by security agents. In both cases the procedures were slowing down evacuation efforts.

Questions remain about whether everyone will leave the coastal regions prone to flooding. Though mandatory evacuation is in effect, the governor said, law enforcement officials, "will not go door to door using force" to get residents to leave. But, he warned, "If you choose to stay despite an evacuation order, you'll have limited resources. You can't call 911 and expect someone to help."

The state's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will be heading up search-and-rescue efforts, and is moving 300 boats into position so that they're ready to go as soon as storm winds subside below 40 miles per hour.

Forty-four nursing homes have been evacuated, along with six hospitals. The state has 233 ambulances standing by and scores more coming from FEMA and states as far away as Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Contraflow on major highways in southeast and southwest Louisiana will begin at 4 a.m. Sunday, two hours earlier than originally planned in order to allow law enforcement and others more time to get into position for the storm without impacting traffic.

Gov. Jindal said demand for fuel has spiked as much as 600% in some parishes and that the state is working with refineries to keep them open and pumping out gasoline until about 12 hours before Gustav's expected arrival. The state received permission for the Department of Environmental Quality to begin selling a winter-blend of gas to provide as much supply as possible. Louisiana has also requested additional fuel supplies from Dallas and Houston to make sure there's adequate supply along the contraflow routes.

"Anything can change," Gov. Jindal said. "We all hope a few days from now that this is just the best practice-run we could have had."