NEW ORLEANSWith a historic evacuation of nearly 2 million people from the Louisiana coast complete, gun-toting police and National Guardsmen stood watch as rain started to fall on New Orleans empty streets Sunday nightand even presidential politics took a back seat as the nation waited to see if Hurricane Gustav would be another Katrina.
The hurricane warning was expanded at 7 p.m. to include High Island, Texas. The warning now stretches from High Island to the Alabama/Florida border.
Forecasters said Gustav could strengthen slightly as it marched toward the coast. At 10 p.m. Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said Gustav was centered about 220 miles southeast of New Orleans and was moving northwest near 16 mph. It had top sustained winds of 115 mph, and was likely to stay a Category 3 storm when it made landfall west of New Orleans. Category 3 storms have winds between 111 mph and 130 mph.
The storm was set to crash ashore early Monday morning with frightful force, testing the three years of planning and rebuilding that followed Katrinas devastating blow to the Gulf Coast. The storm has already killed at least 94 people on its path through the Caribbean.
Painfully aware of the failings that led to more than 1,600 deaths during Katrina, this time officials moved beyond merely insisting tourists and residents leave south Louisiana. They threatened to put looters behind bars, loaded thousands onto buses and warned that anyone who remained behind would not be rescued.
They were confident that they had done all they could.
Its amazing. It makes me feel really good that so many people are saying, We as Americans, we as the world, have to get this right this time, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said late Sunday. as his campaign rewrote the script for the convention to emphasize a commitment to helping people.
Storm Pulse
The nations economic attention was focused on Gustavs effect on refineries and offshore petroleum production rigs. The combination of prolonged production interruptions, such as occurred when Katrina and Rita damaged the Gulf infrastructure, could trigger rising prices.
Billions of dollars were at stake in other wide-ranging economic sectors, including sugar harvesting, the shipping business and tourism. The Mississippi Gaming Commission ordered a dozen casinos to close.
Rain started falling in New Orleans before sunset, and tropical storm-force winds had reached the southeastern tip of the state.
New Orleans will likely be on the dirty side of the storm where rainfall is heaviest and tornadoes are possible, but the storm surge is lower. If forecasts hold, the city would experience a storm surge of only 4 to 6 feet, compared to a surge of 10 to 14 feet at the site of landfall, said Corey Walton, a hurricane support meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center. Katrina, by comparison, brought a storm surge of 25 feet.
Surge models suggest large areas of southeast Louisiana, including parts of the greater New Orleans area, could be flooded by several feet of water. But Gustav appears most likely to overwhelm the levees west of the city that have for decades been underfunded and neglected and are years from an update.
I am so sad that it is going back there, having been there before Katrina and also seeing it after, yes they had cleaned it up but it was nowhere near as beautiful of place as it was 
