Thousands told to flee hurricane

Nearly a half-million people in the US were today urged to flee their homes as a a fearsome hurricane barrelled toward the Gulf Coast with 140 mph winds.

“We have a real disaster in the making,” said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida. “This is going to be the worst hurricane to hit the Louisiana coast since reconnaissance data has been available” since the mid-1940s.