New Orleans evacuated as hurricane bears down

AN immediate evacuation for all of New Orleans was ordered last night as Hurricane Katrina bore down with wind revving up to nearly 175mph and threats of a massive storm surge.

Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave before the eye of the storm strikes land sometime this morning, the city set up 10 places of last resort including the Superdome.

“This is a once in a lifetime event,” Mayor Ray Nagin said. “The city of New Orleans has never seen a hurricane of this magnitude hit it directly.”

The mayor said a direct hit by Katrina’s storm surge would likely top the levees that protect the city from the surrounding water of Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River and marshes. The bowl-shaped city, which sits below sea level with 485,000 inhabitants, must pump water out even during normal times, and the hurricane threatened electricity that runs the pumps.

“We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared,” Mr Nagin said.

US President George Bush urged people living in the path of Katrina to take the storm extremely seriously and follow orders to evacuate to higher ground.

A day after declaring an emergency for Louisiana, Mr Bush declared an emergency for the state of Mississippi and pledged federal support.

Rain started falling on extreme southeastern Louisiana as the storm moved across the Gulf of Mexico toward land. Highways in Mississippi and Louisiana were jammed as people headed away from Katrina’s expected landfall. All lanes were limited to northbound traffic on Interstates 55 and 59 in the two states. Beyond the Gulf Coast, Katrina was “unmitigated bad news for consumers” because it had shut down offshore production of at least 1 million barrels of oil daily and threatened refinery and import operations around New Orleans, said Peter Beutel, an oil analyst in New Canaan, Connecticut. He said crude oil could top $70 a barrel by today or tomorrow.

If Katrina maintained its strength, it would be only the fourth Category 5 hurricane on record to strike the United States.

“I’m really scared. I’ve been through hurricanes, but this one scares me,” Linda Young, aged 38, said as she filled her gas tank. “I think everybody needs to get out.”

The storm was moving west-northwest at nearly 12mph and was expected to turn north-northwest. Forecasters said the weather would start getting rough late last night.

The mayor said people who opted to go to the Superdome should take enough food and supplies to last three to five days. He said police and firefighters would fan out throughout the city telling residents to get out and that police would have the authority to commandeer any vehicle or building that could be used for evacuation or shelter.

Hotels were exempted from the evacuation order because airlines had cancelled all flights out.

A hurricane warning was in effect for the north-central Gulf Coast from Morgan City, Louisiana to the Alabama-Florida line, meaning hurricane conditions were expected within 24 hours.

Katrina had been blamed for nine deaths in South Florida after making an earlier landfall there. It was the sixth hurricane to hit Florida in just over a year.