Eight die as Hurricane Gustav hits America

Hurricane starts to weaken

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DESTRUCTION: A resident looks at the wreckage of his collapsed trailer in Houma, Louisiana, which was hammered by winds from Hurricane Gustav.

STORM FORCE: A young girl shields her face from the stinging winds in Lafayette, Louisiana.

BROKEN: Shrimp boats lie in the car park at Pass Christian, Mississippi, after the hurricane hit.

HURRICANE Gustav has claimed eight lives after making landfall on America’s Gulf coast.

But the storm, which had weakened before it hit, delivered only a glancing blow to New Orleans as it headed inland today.

Authorities reported eight deaths linked to the storm, though at least five were traffic-related.

But there was no repeat of the devastation caused by Katrina three years ago. An estimated two million people fled Louisiana over the weekend as Gustav prompted fears of another disaster.

But “the storm of the century” lost much of its power as it landed south-west of New Orleans – which resembled a ghost town – and city levees, which failed during Katrina, appeared to be holding today.

New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin urged everyone to “resist the temptation to say we’re out of the woods”.

He said Gustav’s heavy rainfall could still flood the city over the next 24 hours as tropical storm-force winds battered the region.

The main threat from Gustav to New Orleans appeared to be flooding.

In the Upper Ninth Ward, about half the streets closest to the canal were flooded with ankle to knee-deep water.

Torrential downpours swept across the US Gulf coast with winds of around 110mph as Gustav smashed into the heart of Louisiana’s fishing and oil industry as a Category 2 storm.

It made landfall near Cocodrie, a low-lying community 72 miles south-west of New Orleans, at around 9.30am local time (3.30pm BST) yesterday, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

Forecasters once feared it would arrive as a devastating Category 4 hurricane, with much more powerful winds.

The full extent of the damage was not immediately known, but it is possible that damage to refineries and drilling platforms could cause fuel prices to spike.

Before hitting the US, Gustav was blamed for more than 90 deaths as it wreaked havoc across the Caribbean.

Three years ago, Katrina killed more than 1,800 people after it hit the Gulf coast with an epic storm surge that topped 27ft, a far higher wall of water than Gustav pushed ashore.

The latest storm did leave tens of thousands without power in New Orleans and other low-lying parishes, but officials said back-up generators were keeping city drainage pumps in service.

But even as fears started to fade over Gustav, another hurricane, Hanna, was strengthening about 40 miles north of the Bahamas and could come ashore in Georgia and South Carolina later in the week.