Gustav gives in after high wind havoc

Philippines News.Net
Tuesday 2nd September, 2008

Hurricane Gustav, the monster storm that sent two million Gulf coast residents fleeing and wrote political history in the US, has spared Louisiana and the city of new Orleans the horror of a levee break.

Although the hurricane took 12 lives, by early Tuesday Gustav had dropped back to a tropical storm.

But, as it tracked across the Caribbean and Cuba last week, it killed 80 people.

An elderly couple was killed in Baton Rouge when a tree dropped on the house they had taken refuge in.

Four people were killed in a traffic accident as they fled the storm.

And six critical-care patients died during evacuations of nursing homes and hospitals.

In Louisiana, there was also some structural damage from winds of up to 249 km per hour and some minor flooding.

Nearly half the state's 1.1 million electricity customers were in the dark on Monday night.

Officials were keeping watch for a possible surge along the Mississippi River from heavy rainfall and high winds.

Water was seen to be spilling over some of New Orleans levees, causing minor flooding and sending volunteers and rescue officials scurrying with sand bags to shore them up.

Gustav has been nothing like the killer storm of 2005, named Katrina, that took 1,800 lives, flooded New Orleans for more than a week and trapped tens of thousands without food and water for days.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin were in no rush to bring evacuees back to town before downed power cables were secured and wind-blown refuse could be removed from the streets.

The massive mandatory evacuation was one of the largest in US history.

From New Orleans alone, an estimated 300,000 people fled in their own transport.

Another 18,000 were transported by the city via train, bus and planes.

Mayor Nagin said he hoped residents could return within 24 to 36 hours of Monday afternoon.

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