Hurricane Gustav
September 2, 2008

NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Gustav weakened to a tropical depression Tuesday but Louisiana authorities urged the nearly 2 million residents who fled the Gulf Coast ahead of the storm to wait a few days before returning home.
Authorities in New Orleans and the surrounding parishes pleaded with residents to give them a chance to clear the streets, assess damage and get power restored before they come home.

By Larry Copeland, USA Today

Every system — sewer, water, drainage — is on back-up power," the mayor said. "Hospitals are on skeleton crews, using backup generators."

In New Orleans and other storm-battered parishes, mandatory evacuation orders remained in effect.

Forecasters had feared Gustav would be a catastrophic Category 4 storm, but it came ashore as a Category 2 with top winds of 110 mph. That was enough to tear roofs from homes and flood roads. It also sunk a ferry, and more than 1 million homes were without power.

Eight deaths have been blamed on the storm in the USA, At least 94 people were killed as it made its way across the Caribbean.

But Gustav missed a direct hit on New Orleans, coming ashore in the low-lying areas of the state about 72 miles southwest of the city.

Mark Oliver, a Los Angeles sales manager who waited out the storm in a New Orleans hotel, felt lucky.

"I was waiting for Katrina, the sequel," he said. But "we got a mellower storm."

By mid-morning, Gustav had become a tropical depression bringing the threat of heavy rain to northeastern Texas, eastern Oklahoma, northern Louisiana and much of Arkansas, according to Jessica Schauer Clark, forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the southern coastal towns of Morgan City and Houma have seen the worst of the storm, with roofs blown off, shattered store fronts and downed power lines and trees. Nearly 1 million people were without power throughout the state, Jindal said.

"This has been a very serious storm with devastating consequences for many communities. It's not over yet," said Jindal.

Southwest of New Orleans, Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes sustained heavy damage, the governor said.

New Orleans, ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was spared similar widespread flooding or paralyzing damage when the strengthened levee system that protects the city appeared to hold.

But the storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of residents across southeastern Louisiana, left the streets and roads littered with downed trees and power lines and damaged some homes.

Workers used thousands of sandbags to repair holes opened by the storm surge in levees between two low-lying parishes, St. Bernard and Plaquemines, outside New Orleans.

Not everyone was heeding the advice to stay away. Frank Charneco, who owns a heating and air-conditioning business, drove back this morning from Destin, Fla., where he took his family on Sunday.

"I have a generator that comes on automatically when the power goes out," he said. "My concern is about somebody going into the house.

"I think it's best for the city if everybody waits," Charneco said. "You still have downed trees, power lines that have to removed. But I need to get back."

Officials in St. Bernard Parish, which was under a 24-hour mandatory curfew, said they would not allow anyone back into the parish until Wednesday. They planned to allow businesses back first and residents after that.

"We're asking for everyone … to please rest assured we're going to do everything we can to bring you all back," said Jefferson Parish Councilman Byron Lee. "Please be patient with us. Our sheriff's office is working as hard as they can to protect your business and protect your homes."

St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis said on radio station WWL that officials there hoped to re-open the parish on Wednesday. He said about 45,000 houses had no power. But Hurricane Gustav's damage was "nowhere near the level of (Katrina). It's street flooding, yard flooding."

In Mississippi, where the storm's impact was a mere fraction of Katrina's, officials were also urging residents to wait one more day before returning. Gustav flooded hundreds of homes and knocked out power to thousands of residents.

In Harrison County, travel was limited to people checking on homes or businesses and going to and from work. The restrictions were imposed to relieve traffic congestion and prevent collisions.

There were no immediate reports of storm-related injuries. "We said we were going to pray for the best and expect the worst," said Gov. Haley Barbour. "We almost got what we prayed for."

Meanwhile, another storm, Hurricane Hanna, was downgraded to a tropical storm in the Caribbean, but forecasters said it would likely regain strength and strike the Southeast this week. Newly formed tropical storm Ike was also forecast to become a hurricane within two days.

Contributing: Rick Jervis, Donna Leinwand, Larry Copeland and Marisol Bello in Louisiana, Douglas Stanglin in McLean, Va., The Hattiesburg-American; The Associated Press.

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