Gustav 'the mother of all storms'

2008-08-31 07:28

New Orleans - Mayor Ray Nagin ordered the city's more than 239 000 residents to evacuate on Sunday in the face of powerful Hurricane Gustav, which he called "the mother of all storms".

The evacuation order issued on Saturday was the first in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina devastated the historic Southern city in August 2005.

"This is the mother of all storms," Nagin said of Gustav, a monstrous Category 4 storm that could approach the central Louisiana coast just west of New Orleans on Monday.

"You need to be concerned and you need to get your butts moving and out of New Orleans right now," Nagin said at City Hall. "This is the storm of the century."

The evacuation order, which will not be physically enforced by officials, will start with the city's low-lying West Bank starting at 08:00 on Sunday, followed by the East Bank at noon, Nagin told reporters.

Residents have the choice to remain behind and weather the storm, but "that would be one of the biggest mistakes that you could make in your life," Nagin said.

He said people might have to chop through the roofs of their houses to escape rising waters if they stay.

"Make sure you have an axe," he said.

Katrina anniversary

But one day after the third anniversary of Katrina, many had already decided to abandon the city, much of which lies below sea level.

Thousands of people fled New Orleans earlier on Saturday. Hoping to avoid the 2005 spectacle of desperate city residents crammed into the New Orleans Superdome, the government lined up hundreds of buses and trains to evacuate 30 000 people who cannot leave on their own.

About 10 000 people left the city by bus or train on Saturday, Nagin said. The rest of the 20 000 people that had requested evacuation assistance would leave on Sunday, he added.

Many evacuees were issued wrist bands with bar codes that will allow city officials to track them.

- Reuters