New Orleans Levees Tested As Gustav Lashes Gulf Coast

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Gustav Hits Hard

Hurricane Gustav lashed into the Gulf Coast as a Category 2 storm, but has now weakened to Category 1. The storm's path takes it over the region around the key oil hub of Port Fourchon, which services deep-water oil production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

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"The coordination on this storm is a lot better than during Katrina," Bush said.

Later in the day, he traveled to the Alamo Regional Command Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, where he met with relief workers and urged Americans to offer help.

As Gustav made its way across the Gulf of Mexico toward its rendezvous with Louisiana, it reached Category 4 status at one point and raised fears that it could become a Category 5 hurricane, the most dangerous level, with the strongest winds. Officials said those fears accounted for much of the success in motivating most New Orleans residents -- and about 2 million Gulf Coast residents in all -- to evacuate their homes and head inland.

"We really saw a surge in the evacuation when they said it was going to be a Category 5," said Col. Mike Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police. "It really scared people and pushed them out."

Energy companies evacuated stationary production platforms and movable drilling rigs as the storm approached, shutting down nearly all U.S. oil and gas production in the gulf and more than a quarter of domestic refinery capacity onshore. Federal energy officials estimated that the shutdowns accounted for about a quarter of total U.S. oil production, 12 percent of natural gas production and 12 percent of oil-refining capacity. About 12 of 33 Gulf Coast refineries were closed, and 10 others operated at reduced levels.

But Kevin Kolevar, assistant secretary of energy, said production can resume quickly, assuming there is no significant damage to platforms or undersea pipelines. "We don't see any indication of [significant damage] at this time, but we'll learn more tomorrow as companies start repopulating facilities," he said.

More than a million customers lost power in Louisiana, and the number was expected to grow as evacuees returned home and reported outages, the Entergy power company said. A company spokesman reported "extremely significant damage in areas," and said restoring service would rival the scale and difficulty of post-Katrina recovery. Thousands in Mississippi also were without electricity.

New Orleans was deserted and damaged, but largely spared. On the wide boulevards of the central business district, newspaper boxes lay on their sides, tree limbs were down and traffic lights swayed perilously. In the working-class neighborhoods near the Industrial Canal, road signs were uprooted and debris was strewn across streets and yards.

But "the levees held strong," said Harvey E. Johnson Jr., deputy administrator of FEMA.

Maj. Gen. Don T. Riley, deputy commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers, said that in the Industrial Canal, on the western side of the city's Upper Ninth Ward, "we may have seen some overwashing and interior flooding, but city pumps will keep up with that."

In the West Bank area of the city, where officials predicted major floods could occur, the roads were largely clear of water. Kenneth Garrett stood outside his red-brick house in suburban Gretna, along the banks of the Mississippi River, and said he was thankful his neighborhood suffered little damage.

Garrett, 54, a furniture restorer, helped his neighbors -- most of whom are elderly -- evacuate before the storm. He promised he would stay and keep guard with his dogs, a golden retriever and a black Labrador.