US waits for ‘storm of the century’

Mass evacuation ahead of Gustav

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FLEEING:People line up to be taken out of New Orleans.

BATTENING DOWN: A resident boards up his home.

HURRICANE Gustav was expected to make landfall on the US Gulf coast today, three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans.

Hundreds of thousands of residents have fled the city after its mayor warned “the storm of the century” was coming and it was “time to be scared”.

George Bush warned Americans of the “dangerous” threat posed by the storm and the Republicans’ national convention was effectively suspended.

Roads out of New Orleans were crammed with traffic and authorities have been trying to help evacuate anyone who cannot get themselves out.

Gustav, which was set to hit land later today, has already left a trail of death and destruction in its wake, killing more than 80 people across the Caribbean.

Speaking at the HQ of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), the president said governors and local leaders across the Gulf coast were “taking this storm very seriously and preparing pro-actively”.

He warned residents: “Do not put yourself in harm’s way or make rescue workers take unnecessary risks.

“And know that the American people stand with you and we will face this emergency together.”

George Bush was widely criticised in the wake of Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people in US coastal areas, for a slow, apparently casual, approach to the disaster and the relief effort.

New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin imposed a dawn-to-dusk curfew from sunset last night as Gustav approaches and said the storm would be “big and ugly”.

The hurricane dropped from a Category 4 to a Category 3 storm on Sunday morning, but forecasters said it could gain strength from the Gulf’s warm waters before making landfall.

Earlier, the mayor told residents: “You need to be scared; you need to get your butts out of New Orleans now.

“This is the mother of all storms. I am not sure we have seen anything like it.”

After Katrina hit land in August 2005, three-quarters of the city was flooded after the storm surge breached its protective levees and more than 1,800 people died around the US coast.

Do you know anyone in New Orleans? E-mail our news desk on ee.news@ajl.co.uk