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Hurricane Gustav gave the state of Louisiana a test for which it had three years to prepare. There were thousands of poor, sick, disabled and elderly people who could not get out on their own. They needed to be rescued with dispatch, and sheltered in safety and dignity. One simple test. The state flunked. Three years to the week after Hurricane Katrina’s landfall, Louisiana executed a fundamentally unfair evacuation plan and did it badly. It relied on dividing the population into separate streams: People with their own cars were directed to shelters run by parishes, churches and the Red Cross....

Excerpt - Even as residents who fled the city ahead of Hurricane Gustav continued to return, Mayor Ray Nagin said Saturday that it appeared the city would need to start worrying about Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Ike grew to Category 4 strength Saturday and could head into the Gulf of Mexico by early next week, putting residents along the Gulf Coast on alert less than a week after Gustav made landfall in south Louisiana. Nagin told reporters he's worried about fast-moving Ike and about the wherewithal of residents who one week ago began leaving ahead of Gustav. Reactions of residents who've...

With the recent formations of Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm Fay in the Caribbean, many people are probably thinking that South Florida is not a great place to be during hurricane season. To the contrary, South Florida (counties ofDade, Broward, and Palm Beach) actually gets hit by very few major hurricanes. First let us look at the statistics. From 1926 when the Category 4 Miami Hurricane hit and destroyed the Florida land boom (humorously portrayed in the Marx Brothers film, "The Cocoanuts") until over twenty years later when the 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane landed, there were no major hurricanes in...

First we had a former national chairman of the Democratic National Committee laughing over the effect of Hurricane Gustav hitting New Orleans would have on Republicans as they prepared to hold their convention this week. Now we have a writer for The New Republic, Nate Silver, worried in the other direction in an article titled, "How Gustav Could Benefit the Republicans." Silver lists the ways he perceives that Republicans could benefit from this storm: 1. Allows McCain to Appear Magnanimous. By potentially delaying or canceling his "date" at the GOP convention, McCain appears as though he is giving something up...

For all those who feel called to pray in one accord.... August 31, 2008 9:45pm PDT Lord God, You are the Holy One. You are the One True God. There is no other God but You. There is no power beyond Yours and nothing which can defeat Your purposes. You are the only One with the plan and ALL things are in Your hands. Lord God, three years ago Hurricane Katrina brought death, destruction and misery to areas which have yet to fully recover. Lord God, as Hurricane Gustav now threatens that same coast, we who are called by Your...

OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- 08/31/08 -- The Honourable David Emerson, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Peter Gordon MacKay, Minister of National Defence and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, today announced that Canada is providing assistance with the evacuation of those in the path of Hurricane Gustav. At the request of the United States government, a Canadian Forces CC-177 aircraft left Canada earlier today for the southern U.S. Gulf Coast. The Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, indicated that he had spoken with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff to offer further assistance. "Canada and the United States...

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NEW ORLEANS -- Residents who try to ride out Hurricane Gustav will be making the biggest mistake of their lives, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin warned on Saturday. Nagin Warns Of 'Storm Of Century'! Video "You need to be scared. You need to be concerned. You need to get your butts out of New Orleans. This is the storm of the century," Nagin said. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for Westbank starting at 8 a.m. Sunday, and mandatory evacuations of the Eastbank will begin at noon. "Riding it out would be the biggest mistake you could make in your life,"...

DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT GUSTAV CONTINUES TO RAPIDLY STRENGTHEN AND NOW HAS MAXIMUM WINDS NEAR 115 MPH...185 KM/HR WITH HIGHER GUSTS. THIS MAKES GUSTAV A DANGEROUS CATEGORY THREE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE...THE SECOND MAJOR HURRICANE OF THE 2008 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON.

Excerpt - MIAMI, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Hurricane Gustav strengthened into a Category 2 storm on Saturday, as it churned across warm Caribbean waters toward western Cuba, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Around 2:15 a.m., forecasters at the Miami-based center said Gustav's top winds had reached near 100 mph (155 kph) as it passed about 50 miles (85 km) northeast of Grand Cayman Island. ~ snip ~

It was disgusting watching the giddiness of some of MSNBC's Democrat National Convention commentator panel at the possibility that Hurricane Gustav will slam New Orleans in catastrophic fashion, kill a lot of people, destroy a lot of property, and remind voters about the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. As you can see above, the latest National Weather Service track shows a direct hit on New Orleans, late Monday or early Tuesday, and Louisiana has declared an emergency in anticipation of landfall. Rachel Maddow was the worst--she could hardly contain her glea at the approach of the already deadly Gustav....

TROPICAL STORM GUSTAV BECOMES A HURRICANE IN THE CARIBBEAN SOUTHEAST OF HAITI-U.S. NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER