ST. PAUL, MINN. — As city workers hung American flags and added patriotic-elephant decorations along downtown streets Saturday, tens of thousands of Republicans from across the country began arriving here for the party's national convention.
But the festive atmosphere was dampened by growing concern over Hurricane Gustav, which is bearing down on the Gulf Coast; the arrest of protesters who police say planned riots; and cancellations by several high-profile speakers, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
GOP officials wrestled Saturday with the possibility of delaying the convention, scheduled to run from Monday through Thursday, or scaling back its pomp and circumstance if Gustav is as devastating as is feared.
"We continue to closely monitor the movement of the storm and are considering necessary contingencies," said Maria Cino, convention president.
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, said Saturday that it might make sense to scale back the party's moment in the spotlight.
"It just wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near-tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster," McCain told Fox News. "So we're monitoring it from day to day and I'm saying a few prayers too."
McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, flew to Minnesota to meet with event organizers to discuss ways they might modify the convention in light of the hurricane.
The powerful storm is predicted to make landfall west of New Orleans as early as Monday, just days after the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. But National Weather Service officials cautioned that the hurricane's path could shift and that it could strike anywhere from Texas to Florida in the next few days.
Apart from humanitarian concerns, the GOP's image-makers are mindful of the public relations and political cost if the party appears to be partying in Minnesota while Americans are battling to survive a devastating hurricane.
The storm also might recall, for some, memories of the Bush administration's slow and much-criticized response to Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people in the storm and subsequent floods and caused more than $81 billion in damage.
At least two Republican governors, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Rick Perry of Texas, said they were canceling their prime-time convention appearances because of Gustav.
