Thousands evacuate New Orleans area in advance of Hurricane Gustav
In an orderly contrast to the Katrina chaos, cars jam the roads headed north and thousands line up in the heat to board buses and trains out of town. Officials hope to evacuate 30,000 by day's end.
NEW ORLEANS -- In cars, buses and trains, thousands of people fled New Orleans and its outlying parishes this morning as Hurricane Gustav bore down on the Gulf Coast.
Cars packed with children, suitcases and pet carriers jammed roadways leading north and west out of the city. Downtown, thousands more lined up in the morning heat, toting backpacks and plastic bags of food as they waited to board buses and trains to shelters in northern Louisiana and neighboring states.
By the end of the day, city officials hoped to evacuate at least 30,000 people who lack transportation or are too sick or old to get out on their own.
The evacuation process was far more orderly than the chaotic crush of people who jammed the Superdome and civic center after Katrina struck three years ago, crammed into squalid conditions as emergency efforts floundered.
Today, police kept residents in neatly formed lines outside the city's Amtrak station, where volunteers handed out water and packs of cookies. Inside, city workers sat at tables in front of laptops, using hand-held scanners to read bar codes on wristbands issued to each evacuee.
Although people outside waited in the hot sun for up to two hours, the station was air-conditioned inside. Volunteers helped evacuees carry suitcases and pushed wheelchair-bound people into lines awaiting trains or buses.
Louisiana National Guard soldiers sealed off the Superdome, turning away traffic and pedestrians. City officials have urged people to leave the city, stressing that there will be no city-run shelters in New Orleans.
Hospitals and nursing homes began evacuating patients Friday and continuing moving them out of the city today.
Parishes outside New Orleans planned to begin mandatory evacuations today, followed soon by New Orleans itself, probably early Sunday. Beginning early Sunday morning, major roadways will be one-way only, heading inland.
Traffic out of town was heavy today, but police kept cars moving at a steady pace.
Police in New Orleans and the parishes said they will establish curfews after mandatory evacuations get underway. Anyone venturing beyond their own homes or apartments will risk arrest, they said.
Gustav, swelling into a Category 3 hurricane, was south of Cuba today. The latest forecasts called for the storm to make landfall just west of New Orleans as early as Monday, but forecasters cautioned that Gustav could strike anywhere along the Gulf coast from Texas to Florida early next week.
