New Orleans orders mandatory evacuation

Washington Post ^ | August 30, 2008 | BECKY BOHRER

[ricks_place]

NEW ORLEANS -- Spooked by predictions that Hurricane Gustav could grow into a Category 5 monster, an estimated 1 million people fled the Gulf Coast Saturday _ even before the official order came for New Orleans residents to get out of the way of a storm taking dead aim at Louisiana.

Mayor Ray Nagin gave the mandatory order late Saturday, but all day residents took to buses, trains, planes and cars _ clogging roadways leading away from New Orleans, still reeling three years after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed about 1,600 across the region.

The evacuation of New Orleans becomes mandatory at 8 a.m. Sunday along the vulnerable west bank of the Mississippi River, and at noon on the east bank. Nagin called Gustav the storm of the century and told residents to "get your butts out of New Orleans now."

[ricks_place]

Nagin called Gustav the storm of the century and told residents to "get your butts out of New Orleans now."

[Ingtar]

What he got spooked by was the NHC telling him what the job north it took today means...

[ryan71]

Oh well, so much for the gay parade.

http://southerndecadence.com/

[LibFreeOrDie]

Live TV broadcast from WWL-TV, NOLA.

They’re talking about the evacs.

http://www.wwltv.com/video/?nvid=57429&live=yes

[Sacajaweau]

Nagin gave the order??? The mayor gives the order??

[Centurion2000]

It's weird but it seems like ever since it hit Jamaica it just turned and it's headed almost directly at NOLA. What's evern stranger is that it almost looks like it's making course corrections on the wundermap to make a direct NOLA hit.

I know we shouldn't anthropomize these storms but this one looks like a cruise missile aimed at NOLA.

[Question Liberal Authority]

I can’t believe people aren’t sitting around waiting for the Federal Government to save them.

[Mobties]

I guess the Heineken beer looter, his friends, and the N'awlins police will have the whole town to themselves.

[ken21]

thanks.

the anchors looked grim.

[gracesdad]

“I can’t believe people aren’t sitting around waiting for the Federal Government to save them.”

You know, there are real live people living there, including my elderly parents (Thibodaux, La. — they’ve left) and numerous other relatives. Maybe you could mute your smug superiority for a while.

[Secret Agent Man]

Wonder if the gays are staying (Southern Decadence Days, y’know). Would be interesting if they did and the hurricane decides to give them a little kiss.

[buccaneer81]

[John123]

Will they be using the buses this time?

[Hattie]

When I was a kid they always seemed to make sharp turns and fool us, but today they seem to stay on track. I’m praying it turns and goes to an unpopulated part of Mexico.

[TexasTransplant]

Works for me

Welfare Recipients one, Taxpayers zero (we are already paying for them anyway), if there has to be destruction...

Maybe they won’t rebuild this time... “hope” they do the World a favor.

(Sorry for you guys in TN, (or wherever the “refugees” end up, my advice is to double lock everything,install motion detectors, buy ammo and sleep less than you did before they showed up) been there, done that.

[edpc]

"You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals, as Jack Cafferty just pointed out, so tragically, so many of these people, almost all of them that we see, are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold."

Wolf Blitzer, Sept 1, 2005

[ken21]

that’s a good thought!

[mewzilla]

Nagin gave the order??? The mayor gives the order??

I suspect Jindal made Nagin an offer Nagin couldn't refuse...

[Question Liberal Authority]

God bless your parents and all those affected.

I'm very sorry if anyone took offense. That wasn't what I meant at all. I'm simply noticing that people down there are being very proactive.

[Hattie]

I suspect Jindal made Nagin an offer Nagin couldn't refuse...

And Jindal let the Natl Guard in too. Five days they kept the guard out and then blamed Bush.

CBS is asking what McCain is going to do this time; now he is a Senator, so how is he any different in this than Senator Obama?