Hurricane Gustav weakened slightly to a Category 2 storm as it headed towards New Orleans today, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

Hundreds of determined Louisiana locals insisted they would stay put as their neighbours fled Hurricane Gustav’s approach by the thousands today.

Global warming may have made Hurricane Gustav slightly stronger and wetter, some scientists said today, but few were rushing to make a specific connection between climate change and stronger storms.

Hurricane Gustav is expected to make landfall on the US Gulf coast today, three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain urged his party “to act as Americans, not as Republicans” and suspended most of his party’s national convention as Hurricane Gustav approached the US Gulf coast.

Republicans will suspend most of the activities planned for tomorrow’s opening of their national convention because of the threat of Hurricane Gustav, presidential hopeful John McCain announced tonight.

US President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will skip the Republican National Convention because of mounting concerns about Hurricane Gustav, the White House said today.

Mayor Ray Nagin has ordered a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, directing residents of a city still recovering from the devastation left behind three years ago from Hurricane Katrina to flee from the approaching Hurricane Gustav.

Gustav slammed into Cuba’s tobacco-growing western tip as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane while both Cubans and Americans scrambled to flee the storm as it roared toward the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans.

Gustav swelled into a fearsome Category four hurricane with winds of 145 mph today as Cuba raced to evacuate more than 240,000 people and Americans to the north clogged motorways fleeing New Orleans.

Hurricane Gustav is now a dangerous Category 3 storm with winds near 115mph, the US National Hurricane Centre warned today.

On the same day that New Orleans residents marked the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s wrath, another storm strengthened into a hurricane miles away and threatened to hit the US Gulf Coast once again.