NEW ORLEANS: Hurricane Gustav charged across the Gulf of Mexico yesterday as residents fled New Orleans and the National Guard prepared to patrol evacuated neighborhoods in a city still recovering three years after Katrina struck. Mayor Ray Nagin instituted a dusk-to-dawn curfew to take effect at sunset and continue until the storm has passed.
The curfew allows officials to arrest residents if they are not on their own property. “Looting will not be tolerated,” Nagin said. “Looters will go directly to jail. You will not get a pass this time.”
Gustav crossed western Cuba yesterday and has already killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean. It picked up speed upon reaching the Gulf and was moving northwest at 27 kph with winds of 193 kph, according to the National Hurricane Center’s latest update. Hurricane-force winds extended 80 km from the storm’s center.
Its center was about 523 km southeast of the Mississippi River’s mouth. The storm could bring a storm surge of up to 6 meters to the coast and rainfall totals of up to 15 inches.
A hurricane warning was in effect for over 800 km of Gulf coast from Cameron, Louisiana, near the Texas border to the Alabama-Florida state line. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley issued a mandatory evacuation order for some coastal areas of Mobile and Baldwin counties.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was headed to the region and planned to stay through the storm.
“I’m well supported in terms of my ability to communicate back to the president and back to Washington, so I’m comfortable that I’m not going to lose touch,” Chertoff said.
President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will skip the Republican National Convention because of worries about Gustav.
