BRITISH holidaymakers sought refuge in storm shelters last night as Hurricane Gustav powered over Cuba on its way to the Gulf Coast of the US and New Orleans.
Around 250,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas of the Caribbean island with the hurricane expected to pick up strength and speed as it heads over open water towards America this morning.
New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin was expected to order
an emergency evacuation of his city at 8am local time if Gustav kept on its present course. It is only three years since the devastating Hurricane Katrina hit the city, killing 1,800 people and sparking a national crisis as New Orleans was submerged.
Yesterday, as experts forecast Gustav would reach the top Category Five strength before hitting the Gulf Coast on Tuesday, thousands of residents had already begun an exodus in cars packed with clothes, boxes and pets. Interstate 55 was jammed with traffic and nursing homes and hospitals began sending patients further inland to escape winds of over 115mph.
"I'm getting out of here. I can't take another hurricane," said Ramona Summers, 59, whose house was flooded during Katrina.
Gustav could strike the US anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Texas, but the latest forecasts make it increasingly likely that New Orleans will be hit. Federal emergency officials expect a "huge number" of Gulf Coast residents will have to leave their homes.
The storm is expected to be accompanied by a storm surge of 15-30ft along the Gulf Coast, the effect which caused widespread flooding in New Orleans in 2005 when protective levees were breached.
In New Orleans, police with loud hailers plan to go from street to street to tell citizens that this time there will be no 'shelter of last resort' and the doors to the Superdome, where thousands sheltered in unsanitary conditions during Hurricane Katrina, will be locked.
The city's emergency preparedness director, Jerry Sneed, has warned those who ignore orders to leave that they must accept "all responsibility for themselves and their loved ones".
Hurricane Gustav has already killed 78 people in the Caribbean and was last night moving northwest of Cuba at 12mph.
The US Hurricane Centre said Gustav had reached the status of a major hurricane, the second one of this Atlantic season after Bertha in July.
Earlier, more than 1,100 people were in government shelters in the Cayman Islands as high waves and heavy winds and rain battered the islands and flooded the streets.
Hotels asked guests to leave and, after the airport closed, prepared to shelter those who remained. One guest said his hotel handed out wristbands marked with their names and room numbers so that "if something happens, they can quickly identify us".
The storm killed four people in Jamaica, where it ripped off roofs and downed power lines, while about 4,000 people were displaced from their homes. At least 66 people died in Haiti and eight in the Dominican Republic.
