NYC4Life
08-29-2008, 07:49 PM
FOX News
NOAA: Tropical Storm Gustav Strengthens to Hurricane
http://www.foxnews.com/images/425999/23_26_t450.jpg
Satellite and Radar Tracking Maps Can Be Found Here (http://media.myfoxtampabay.com/myfoxhurricane/)
GULFPORT, Miss. — Tropical Storm Gustav has strengthened back to a hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Gustav is expected to be accompanied by huge storm surges of between 15 and 30 feet high when it hits the United States coast, FEMA told Reuters.
Hurricane Katrina victims still living in temporary housing along Mississippi's coastline should begin evacuating this weekend as Gustav approaches the Gulf Coast, Gov. Haley Barbour said Friday.
Forecasters say the storm could hit anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Texas as a major hurricane next week, though caution it is difficult to predict a storm's track and strength several days in advance.
"Let me say to the people of Mississippi: This is not a time to panic, but it is a time to get prepared," Barbour said at a news conference.
Roughly 2,700 government-provided trailers remain occupied along Mississippi's 70-mile coast, which was badly hit by Katrina three years ago. Officials are concerned because trailers are vulnerable to damage in high winds.
Barbour says mandatory evacuation notices are going out to trailer residents on Saturday. Evacuations of trailers and mobile homes in Mississippi's coastal Harrison and Hancock counties will start Sunday morning and will begin Monday in Jackson County.
The order also applies to some of the 2,800 cottages built as alternatives to trailers. Only those cottages in flood zones are subject to mandatory evacuation.
Barbour said it's too early for Mississippi to decide if a wider evacuation order will be needed. Those decisions will be made in the coming days.
"The blessing, if there is one, is that it's a three-day weekend," he said. "The storm is a long way off. People have a lot of time."
Mississippi was the first state to call for any mandatory evacuations in advance of a possible hit by Gustav.
The mayor of Grand Isle, La., a community typically among the first to vacate when severe weather threatens, called for a voluntary evacuation beginning Friday afternoon. New Orleans was organizing buses in case an evacuation was necessary, but had not yet called for residents to leave.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said federal officials defer to state and local authorities on making evacuation calls, but can help them synchronize their plans.
"We try not to pull the trigger too early on evacuation because you don't want to have false alarms," he said.
Meanwhile, many solemn ceremonies for the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Friday were blown away by Tropical Storm Gustav, which poses the biggest threat to New Orleans since the killer 2005 storm.
An early morning symbolic burial service in honor of the unclaimed bodies left behind by Katrina, and a bell ringing service scheduled for 9:38 a.m. CDT — when the first levee broke inundating the city — were the only events that remained on what would have been a day of remembrance of the devastating storm.
Instead, preparations were under way in the event Gustav strikes early next week.
The National Guard was scheduled to begin convoying supplies and troops into New Orleans on Friday, while some nursing homes and hospitals planned to start moving patients further inland and the state began moving 9,000 inmates from coastal lockups.
An evacuation order for New Orleans was likely, Mayor Ray Nagin said, but not before Saturday Meanwhile, residents of areas further south could be told to leave starting Friday, Gov. Bobby Jindal said.
Federal, state and local officials expressed confidence that plans put in place since Katrina would protect residents.
"Ladies and gentlemen, in my estimation, I think we're ready for this threat," Nagin told a news conference Thursday.
The state activated 3,000 Guardsmen on Wednesday, another 2,000 on Thursday, Jindal said. Jindal said he has ordered 1,500 of them to be in New Orleans Friday.
The new troops would beef up the 360 Guardsmen who have been in the city since Katrina helping to police the city.
Projections showed Gustav arriving early next week as a Category 3 storm, with winds of 111 mph greater, anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to eastern Texas. But forecasts are extremely tentative several days out, and the storm could change course and strength.
http://www.foxnews.com/images/425999/20_25_gus450.jpg
Nagin said people still living in the small trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency after Katrina should take immediate steps to plan evacuations.
If an evacuation is ordered, the city will also put a curfew in place, Nagin said. Anyone who ignores the evacuation order and is on the streets after curfew will be arrested, he said.
The city said it is prepared to move 30,000 residents in an evacuation; estimates put the city's current population between 310,000 to 340,000 people. There were about 454,000 here before Katrina hit. Unlike Katrina, there will be no massive shelter at the Superdome, in fact, no shelter at all was planned for the city.
The city planned to use buses to pick up people unable to leave on their own and ferry them to a staging area where they would be moved to shelters in northern Louisiana.
NOAA: Tropical Storm Gustav Strengthens to Hurricane
http://www.foxnews.com/images/425999/23_26_t450.jpg
Satellite and Radar Tracking Maps Can Be Found Here (http://media.myfoxtampabay.com/myfoxhurricane/)
GULFPORT, Miss. — Tropical Storm Gustav has strengthened back to a hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Gustav is expected to be accompanied by huge storm surges of between 15 and 30 feet high when it hits the United States coast, FEMA told Reuters.
Hurricane Katrina victims still living in temporary housing along Mississippi's coastline should begin evacuating this weekend as Gustav approaches the Gulf Coast, Gov. Haley Barbour said Friday.
Forecasters say the storm could hit anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Texas as a major hurricane next week, though caution it is difficult to predict a storm's track and strength several days in advance.
"Let me say to the people of Mississippi: This is not a time to panic, but it is a time to get prepared," Barbour said at a news conference.
Roughly 2,700 government-provided trailers remain occupied along Mississippi's 70-mile coast, which was badly hit by Katrina three years ago. Officials are concerned because trailers are vulnerable to damage in high winds.
Barbour says mandatory evacuation notices are going out to trailer residents on Saturday. Evacuations of trailers and mobile homes in Mississippi's coastal Harrison and Hancock counties will start Sunday morning and will begin Monday in Jackson County.
The order also applies to some of the 2,800 cottages built as alternatives to trailers. Only those cottages in flood zones are subject to mandatory evacuation.
Barbour said it's too early for Mississippi to decide if a wider evacuation order will be needed. Those decisions will be made in the coming days.
"The blessing, if there is one, is that it's a three-day weekend," he said. "The storm is a long way off. People have a lot of time."
Mississippi was the first state to call for any mandatory evacuations in advance of a possible hit by Gustav.
The mayor of Grand Isle, La., a community typically among the first to vacate when severe weather threatens, called for a voluntary evacuation beginning Friday afternoon. New Orleans was organizing buses in case an evacuation was necessary, but had not yet called for residents to leave.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said federal officials defer to state and local authorities on making evacuation calls, but can help them synchronize their plans.
"We try not to pull the trigger too early on evacuation because you don't want to have false alarms," he said.
Meanwhile, many solemn ceremonies for the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Friday were blown away by Tropical Storm Gustav, which poses the biggest threat to New Orleans since the killer 2005 storm.
An early morning symbolic burial service in honor of the unclaimed bodies left behind by Katrina, and a bell ringing service scheduled for 9:38 a.m. CDT — when the first levee broke inundating the city — were the only events that remained on what would have been a day of remembrance of the devastating storm.
Instead, preparations were under way in the event Gustav strikes early next week.
The National Guard was scheduled to begin convoying supplies and troops into New Orleans on Friday, while some nursing homes and hospitals planned to start moving patients further inland and the state began moving 9,000 inmates from coastal lockups.
An evacuation order for New Orleans was likely, Mayor Ray Nagin said, but not before Saturday Meanwhile, residents of areas further south could be told to leave starting Friday, Gov. Bobby Jindal said.
Federal, state and local officials expressed confidence that plans put in place since Katrina would protect residents.
"Ladies and gentlemen, in my estimation, I think we're ready for this threat," Nagin told a news conference Thursday.
The state activated 3,000 Guardsmen on Wednesday, another 2,000 on Thursday, Jindal said. Jindal said he has ordered 1,500 of them to be in New Orleans Friday.
The new troops would beef up the 360 Guardsmen who have been in the city since Katrina helping to police the city.
Projections showed Gustav arriving early next week as a Category 3 storm, with winds of 111 mph greater, anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to eastern Texas. But forecasts are extremely tentative several days out, and the storm could change course and strength.
http://www.foxnews.com/images/425999/20_25_gus450.jpg
Nagin said people still living in the small trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency after Katrina should take immediate steps to plan evacuations.
If an evacuation is ordered, the city will also put a curfew in place, Nagin said. Anyone who ignores the evacuation order and is on the streets after curfew will be arrested, he said.
The city said it is prepared to move 30,000 residents in an evacuation; estimates put the city's current population between 310,000 to 340,000 people. There were about 454,000 here before Katrina hit. Unlike Katrina, there will be no massive shelter at the Superdome, in fact, no shelter at all was planned for the city.
The city planned to use buses to pick up people unable to leave on their own and ferry them to a staging area where they would be moved to shelters in northern Louisiana.
