Gustav weakens to category 2 storm

As a nervous nation watched to see if Gustav would deliver another Katrina-style hit on the partially rebuilt city, officials steadfastly insisted three years of planning and infrastructure upgrades had prepared them for whatever was to come.

8220;We don8217;t expect the loss of life, certainly, that we saw in Katrina,8221; Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Harvey E Johnson said. 8220;But we are expecting a lot of homes to be damaged, a lot of infrastructure to be flooded, and damaged severely.8221;

On the high ground in the French Quarter, nasty winds whipped signs and the purple, green and gold Mardi Gras flags hanging from cast-iron balconies. Like the rest of the city, the Quarter8217;s normally boisterous streets were deserted save for a police officer standing watch every few blocks and a few early-morning drinkers in the city8217;s famous bars.

8220;We wanted to be part of a historic event,8221; said Benton Love, 30, stood outside Johnny White8217;s Sports Bar with a whiskey and Diet Coke. 8220;We knew Johnny White8217;s would be the place to be. We8217;ll probably switch to water about 10 O8217;clock, sober up, and see if we can help out.8221;

FEMA estimated there were only about 10,000 people left in the city, and the state said about 1,00,000 remained on the coast. Nearly 2 million people answered the call to leave south Louisiana in the days before Gustav8217;s arrival, a massive evacuation effort designed to avoid the nearly 1,600 deaths suffered when Katrina struck an unprepared Gulf Coast in 2005.

New Orleans police superintendent Warren Riley said there had been no reports of looting or calls for rescue. The Superdome was locked up and city officials stuck to their pledge not to open a shelter of last resort. Public officials sternly warned in the days leading up to the storm that anyone leaving their homes after a dawn-to-dusk curfew was imposed would be swiftly thrown behind bars. Evacuees watched television coverage from shelters and hotel rooms hundreds of miles away, praying the powerful Category 2 storm and its 115-mph winds would pass without the exacting Katrina8217;s toll.

Gustav weakened on Monday to a Category 2 storm as its eyewall rolled onto land. Katrina made landfall as a strong Category 3, which has sustained winds of between 111 mph and 130 mph. At 8 AM, the storm8217;s centre was located about 85 miles south of New Orleans and was moving northwest at 16 mph. It had top sustained winds of 110 mph.

The city of Franklin, about 100 miles west of New Orleans, was bracing for a direct hit if Gustav stays on its current track. Dozens of sheriff8217;s deputies, along with state troopers and guardsmen, waited at an emergency operations centre inside the courthouse.

Three years after Katrina

8226;Hurricane Gustav is a tropical storm which made landfall in western Cuba on August 30, 2008, causing major damage and displacing 250,000. It also killed at least 80 people in the Caribbean on August 30.

8226; Headed to the Gulf Coast of Mexico, the federal government declared a state of emergency in Louisiana on August 29, while New Orleans ordered the evacuations of its residents on August 30. Millions in the predicted path of the hurricane, in Louisiana and Texas, have left their homes.

8226; Hurricane Gustav comes almost three years to the day after Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans, the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Mississippi. About 1,830 people died in the hurricane and 705 went missing. Among recorded hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall and the third strongest to make a landfall in the United States. The storm is estimated to have been responsible for 81.2 billion in damage, making it the costliest natural disaster in US history.