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As Gustav Nears, GOP Changes Course
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Federal and local relief officials began preparations for the storm last week, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff flew to Louisiana on Sunday.
Bush said he would not travel to Louisiana on Monday because he did not want his visit to impede rescue personnel, but he expected to visit the state "as soon as conditions permit."
He expressed confidence in the readiness of federal and local officials. "There's a lot of preparations that have gone in anticipation of this storm," he said.
Even with better preparations, a storm the size of Gustav will cause economic dislocations.
With about 40 percent of U.S. oil-refining capacity located on or near the Gulf Coast, the storm threatened to cause disruptions in petroleum product supplies for the next few days and, if damage is done, beyond.
More than 1 million barrels a day in oil production has been shut down in anticipation of the storm. That equals more than two-thirds of U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia this year.
Motiva, a joint venture of Shell Oil and Saudi Aramco, closed down two refineries and was running another at "minimum rates"; it said it would keep only emergency staff on duty. Shell said it had closed two of its three chemical plants in the area.
About a quarter of U.S. crude oil production and an eighth of its natural gas production comes from the Gulf of Mexico, and oil experts were warning of damage to supplies.
"You're probably talking about, short-term, six or seven days of pretty significant shut-ins with regard to natural gas and crude oil," said Kenneth B. Medlock III, an energy fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute, who noted that about 80 percent of the gulf's 1.3 million-barrel-a-day crude oil production had been shut down.
He said that even without damage to oil facilities, storm-related power outages at refineries could disrupt supplies for several days.
The long boulevards of downtown New Orleans and the narrow residential streets of the Lower Ninth Ward were eerily empty Sunday. For blocks and blocks, the only signs of life were city police officers posted on corners, accompanied by Louisiana National Guard troops wearing camouflage and carrying assault rifles.
"We're just here to help people evacuate," said a guardsman on North Claiborne Avenue in the Lower Ninth Ward in the late afternoon. But it looked as though that work had been completed hours earlier.
Hsu reported from Washington. Staff writers Dana Hedgpeth, Philip Rucker and David Montgomery on the Gulf Coast and Steven Mufson in Washington contributed to this report.
