Hurricane Georges swept full force into the US Gulf coast yesterday, releasing vast amounts of rain and causing widespread flooding. Three people died in Florida and Louisiana, taking the death toll to at least 323 during the storm's weeklong rampage across the Caribbean and through the Florida Keys into the Gulf of Mexico.
Arriving on the Gulf coast after crossing the Caribbean, Georges first churned slowly north-west at 10 kph before becoming nearly stationary yesterday morning near Gulfport, Mississippi.
The National Weather Service predicted the storm would drift further inland over southern Mississippi during the day after it made landfall early yesterday between Gulfport and Biloxi.
But it was weakening as it travelled, with maximum sustained winds falling from 169 kph to 144 kph, the service said.
In New Orleans, Georges caused one fatality, an elderly resident who died in a hurricane-related fire, police lieutenant Marlon Defillo said.
"The city is closed today, we are still under a state of emergency," the New Orleans Mayor, Mr Marc Morial, said.
Georges brought torrential downpours and storm surges that flooded streets in coastal areas of Alabama and Mississippi.
Just east of Biloxi, in Mobile, Alabama, water gushed out of Mobile Bay to course down city streets, creating rivers running five feet deep through town with white-cap waves whipped along by the wind.
In Pascagoula, Mississippi, a tornado spawned by Georges tore the roof off a junior high school where 700 people had taken refuge, but there were no serious injuries reported and those in the shelter were relocated. The storm tore the roof off another shelter in the same town with no injuries reported.
President Clinton announced over the weekend that he would visit areas stricken by Georges.
"An inspection trip is possible Tuesday or later," said the White House spokesman, Mr Barry Toiv, on Sunday, without indicating where Mr Clinton would go.
Until late on Sunday, the hurricane was heading directly towards New Orleans, a city built 1.8 metres below the sea level and surrounded by 209 km of levees.
Highways from the Florida Panhandle to New Orleans were jammed on Sunday with people obeying evacuation orders and fleeing north.
At the coastal Mississippi state town of Bay St Louis, the Mayor, Mr Eddie Favre, ordered mandatory evacuation of beach residents in flood-prone neighbourhoods, and said there was a 6 p.m. curfew ordered for all coast cities.
But even after the storm people would have to be wary of downed power lines, debris on the roadways - and snakes.