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As Gustav Nears, GOP Changes Course
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Some evacuees did not know where they would go, just so long as they left New Orleans. "I just go wherever the bus goes," Myrna Campbell, 71, a teacher, said as she packed her cat, Missy, into a plastic crate.
In addition to high wind, a major concern is flooding in the West Bank neighborhood of New Orleans and neighboring Jefferson Parish, one of several parishes expected to take the brunt of Gustav's force.
"We don't have homes that were built to withstand this kind of storm," said Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, which has a population of 431,000.
The government office building on the eastern side of Jefferson Parish, which straddles the Mississippi, had become an emergency operations center for police, firefighters, National Guard troops and others helping residents board large chartered buses to get out of town.
"They say it is going to be pretty bad, and I don't drive so well," said Sandra Gibson, 48, a grocery store clerk. She cried as she and her 17-year-old daughter, Victoria, carried two tote bags filled with snacks and a few clothes from their truck to the white tents where workers helped load them on buses.
"The hurricane is bad enough, so I don't want to also get stranded and lost trying to drive myself out," Gibson said. "I just want to go and be safe."
Unlike with Katrina, when thousands suffered in the heat and squalor of the Superdome, New Orleans has announced that it will not operate any "shelters of last resort" and wanted everyone out of the city. Anyone who remains will be on their own, Nagin warned Sunday.
Evacuation volunteers said this effort was better run than the effort before Katrina.
"It's definitely more organized, and they're leaving a lot sooner," said Norman Pineda, a local volunteer with the American Red Cross who worked Sunday at the city train station. "It's more calm than last time."
Animals were also receiving more attention than during Katrina, when pet lovers were horrified by televised images of starving animals in the empty and flooded streets of New Orleans.
At the train station, dozens of volunteers boarded stray animals and the pets of emergency personnel who are staying in the city. Dogs were placed in giant plastic crates, and those with owners will be reunited with them at emergency shelters in north Louisiana. "The pets will be okay," said Scotlund Haisley, senior director for emergency services at the Humane Society of the United States. "The lessons learned from Katrina are working. Does that mean there will be animals left behind? Yes. But these animals will be okay."
For days, federal and local officials have sought to contrast their preparations for Gustav with the meager planning and interagency bickering that marred the Katrina response. About 1,800 died during and after the storm, and the Gulf Coast has yet to recover.
