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TechnoratiHurricane Gustav roared into the Gulf of Mexico just short of Category 5 strength, forecasters said Sunday, but could hit the top of the scale before the end of the day with winds above 155 mph.
(Photo: AP Images / Rob Carr)Residents evacuate from the approaching Hurricane Gustav at the Greyhound Bus and Amtrak station in New Orleans, on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008. A million people took to Gulf Coast highways Saturday, boarding up homes and businesses and fleeing dangerous Hurricane Gustav by bus and automobile as the season's most powerful Atlantic storm took aim at Louisiana.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the “extremely dangerous” storm weakened slightly over Cuba but was expected to regain strength as it moves over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and toward the U.S. Coast.
More than 1 million Americans made wary by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 took buses, trains, planes and cars as they streamed out of New Orleans and other coastal cities where Katrina had killed about 1,600 people just three years ago.
Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans ordered residents to flee the "storm of the century" by Sunday morning.
“This is not the one to play with," he said, according to The Associated Press.
Numerous faith-based, community, and government agencies are preparing to sweep into the affected areas after Gustav makes landfall late Monday or early Tuesday and makes its way through anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Texas.
World Vision, one of the largest Christian relief and development organizations in the world, has readied emergency supplies in Picayune, Miss., with several truckloads of additional goods on standby in Dallas, Los Angeles and other U.S. locations.
"We're making the most of this early warning time to prepare," said John Pettit, director of World Vision's domestic disaster response, in a report Friday. "Our staff in Mississippi and Texas have been contacting dozens of churches and community groups that we've partnered with since Katrina to let them know we want to stand by them for Gustav and help them serve the most vulnerable in their communities."
The organization's domestic disaster response teams were also on full alert, with expert staff prepared to deploy from around the country early this week should Hurricane Gustav prove destructive.
"We're hoping and praying that Gustav spares the Gulf Coast, but we know from experience that we have to be ready for a worst-case scenario," explained Pettit, whose team has been actively coordinating with regional authorities and other members of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD) in preparation for the storm's landfall.
Meanwhile, The Salvation Army's preparations for Hurricane Gustav continued over the weekend with further staging of supplies and planning for evacuation of affected individuals from the Gulf Coast. Personnel in Hattiesburg, Miss., have set up a major staging area to support New Orleans and 19 shelters are being prepared throughout Texas. Across the region, more than 170 mobile feeding units are serving or are on standby waiting for deployment, along with other equipment. The Salvation Army's total current feeding capability is more than 560,000 meals per day.
"Right now we are asking everyone who might be in the way of this storm to get out and batten down the hatches," said Major Gene Hogg, the NGO's divisional secretary for Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, in a report Saturday. "This is shaping up to be a big storm and we are anticipating a long-term recovery effort will be needed. The more people we can get out of the way before it hits, the better."
Gustav has already killed 81 people by triggering floods and landslides in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
President Bush, confronted with the prospect of a second monster hurricane striking the still-battered Gulf Coast, checked in with governors and federal officials Saturday to make sure Washington was doing all it can ahead of Gustav’s U.S. landfall.
"He told each of the governors that federal officials were monitoring Hurricane Gustav very closely," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said, according to AP. "President Bush pledged the full support of the federal government." Continue »
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