US:TROPICAL STORM Gustav approached Jamaica yesterday as residents of Louisiana began to prepare for the system to hit at hurricane force next week, three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans.
The department of homeland security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), criticised in 2005 for its slow response to Katrina, is preparing for the storm with state officials.
Fema said it moved 2.4 million litres of water in 137 trucks, four million meals in 203 trucks, 478 electric generators and 267 truckloads of blankets and cots into position for distribution in gulf coast states.
Mayor Ray Nagin said New Orleans's protective ring of levees has not been fully strengthened since some parts failed when Katrina struck on August 29th, 2005, contributing to floods that covered 80 per cent of the city.
"Although we have made strong strides in rebuilding our infrastructure, the levees have not been fully repaired and we have an $800 million (€544 million) budget gap to complete our sewage and water systems," Mr Nagin said. There will be no "shelters of last resort", such as the Superdome or the Convention Centre, where thousands took refuge during Katrina, the mayor said. Police will roam neighbourhoods making sure people are out, and trains, buses and aircraft will be pressed into service for those without transportation, he said.
Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal requested a "pre-landfall" federal disaster declaration, saying the storm may overwhelm state resources. Mr Jindal readied 3,000 national guardsmen to help emergency efforts in the state, and 700 buses were on standby to evacuate as many as 35,000 people.
Gustav may intensify into a category three hurricane or stronger as it enters the Gulf of Mexico by the weekend, the US government projects. Category three hurricanes have maximum sustained winds of at least 179km (111 miles) an hour.
The storm, which has already killed more than 20 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, prompted the evacuation of offshore oil workers in the US.
The US army corps of engineers has been working to improve the levee system that holds back water surrounding New Orleans, which sits below sea level. Work will not be completed until 2011.
Katrina was the most economically destructive hurricane in US history, costing the gulf coast states as much as $125 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The population of New Orleans dropped to about 250,000, about half of what it was before the storm. It is now back up to about 300,000. New Orleans is planning a traditional jazz funeral to remember Katrina today, followed by a ceremonial bell ringing at the Katrina memorial cemetery.
Executives of New Orleans hotels have met to discuss contingency plans, said Kelly Schulz, vice-president for communications at the city's visitors' bureau.
"At this point, we're business as usual," Ms Schulz said. The Southern Decadence Festival, a gay and lesbian gathering that draws "several thousand people every Labour Day", was still on schedule, Ms Schulz said.
In the off-shore oilfields off the gulf, several thousand of the almost 20,000 workers are being evacuated, said Ted Falgout, director of Port Fourchon in Louisiana, a staging area for offshore workers.
At Molly's at the Market, which received media attention for staying open throughout the aftermath of Katrina, bartender Marsha Kerasidisa had heard a storm might hit her city.
"People are beginning to talk about it,'' she said.
"This is my first so I don't know what to expect." - (Bloomberg)