New Orleans Evacuation Continues As Gustav Cuts Across Gulf of Mexico

September 1, 2008

BATON ROUGE, LA (WALL STREET JOURNAL) - U.S. Gulf Coast residents evacuated their homes en masse as Hurricane Gustav bore down, threatening to cut a devastating swath across the Gulf of Mexico's oil and gas infrastructure and to flood at least parts of New Orleans just days after the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

On Monday morning, the National Hurricane Center said the storm was bringing heavy bands of rain as it approached New Orleans.

A hurricane warning remains in effect from just east of High Island, Texas, east to the Mississippi-Alabama border, and a tropical storm warning remains in effect for east of the Mississippi-Alabama border to the Ochlockonee River in Florida. In a 7 a.m., EDT advisory, the NHC said the storm was about 85 miles south of New Orleans and about 150 miles southeast of Lafayette, La. The storm, moving at about 16 mph with maximum sustained winds of about 115 mph was moving northwest and was expected to cross the Louisiana coast by midday Monday.

Tropical storm-force winds had reached the southeastern tip of the state early Monday morning, but local officials said they had not received any distress calls or reports of unexpected flooding.

In Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans, officials built an emergency levee to prevent flooding along a highway that runs along the Mississippi River channel, sheriff's spokesman Maj. John Marie said. But it was extremely quiet early Monday morning. "It's really remarkable, we got almost everybody out," he said. Deputies went door to door and identified about 12 people who planned to ride out the storm.

Gustav's untimely arrival also disrupted plans for the Republican National Convention, which was scheduled to begin Monday in Minnesota. Sen. John McCain canceled the first day of his convention, and his campaign made plans to turn the gathering into a giant fundraiser as they braced for the natural and political fallout. President Bush scrapped his Monday appearance at the convention and instead headed to Texas, where emergency response personnel were getting ready.

Campaign and convention officials said no decisions have been made about what will happen beyond Monday night, saying decisions would be made day by day.

Chastened after a disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials scrambled to assure the public that they were prepared. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff headed to the region Sunday and said he planned to stay through the storm.

Forecasters expect Gustav to slam into the central Louisiana coast not far from the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port. If Gustav stays on that course, it would disrupt world oil shipping lanes. The port handles 10% of U.S. oil imports and is the only U.S. facility capable of offloading the largest tankers.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal warned state residents that coastal Louisiana, including low-lying New Orleans, could be under as much as 12 feet of water when Hurricane Gustav rumbles ashore on Monday, thanks in part to still inadequate levee systems. (See related article.)

That would mean, he said, "overtopping of levees" across much of southern Louisiana, leaving areas like Plaquemines, Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes inundated by the Gulf of Mexico.

Making the situation worse, he said, is that the Army Corps of Engineers "is not nearly done with levee work that was supposed to have been done. Tremendous areas are not protected. We are still years away before they have 100-year flood protection done for New Orleans. The levees are not up to authorized heights."

"No one should assume these levees are back to where they need to be," Mr. Jindal said. At this point, he said, "they'll protect property, but not protect life."