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http://reuters.myway.com/article/20...481242_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-WEATHER-KATRINA-DC.html
New Orleans braces as Hurricane Katrina bears down
Aug 28, 1:02 AM (ET)
By Michael Depp and Russell McCulley
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (Reuters) - Shopkeepers sandbagged galleries and stores in the French Quarter of the vulnerable Gulf Coast city of New Orleans and workers boarded up city hall as Hurricane Katrina churned across Gulf waters.
Officials in the low-lying city famed for its Mardi Gras parades urged residents to evacuate and stranded tourists to shelter on at least the third floor of their hotels as Katrina threatened to make a second and possibly more deadly assault on the U.S. coast after killing seven people in Florida.
"I think there is a very good possibility it will indeed get stronger," Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, told WSVN television in Miami.
"This hurricane has the potential to cause extreme damage and large loss of lives if they don't take action very soon."
By 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT) on Saturday, Katrina was about 335 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River with 115 mph (190 kph) winds.
It had begun a turn to the northwest that could see it roaring ashore somewhere between the Florida-Alabama border and Morgan City in Louisiana on Monday, and taking a course through the heart of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production.
Computer models showed that New Orleans, much of which lies below sea level, could be in the storm's bull's eye. They also indicated Katrina could grow into at least a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale with destructive winds of more than 131 mph (210 kph).
Some predictions saw it becoming a catastrophic Category 5 -- like Hurricane Andrew which struck south of Miami in 1992 and ranks as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, or Hurricane Camille in 1969, which just missed New Orleans but devastated Louisiana and Alabama and killed more than 400.
EXODUS
New Orleans officials turned some major routes out of the city into one-way streets, helping to speed the exodus.
Mayor Ray Nagin said the Louisiana Superdome would become a giant shelter for people with special needs on Sunday. As for others, Nagin said he hoped "people are taking the necessary steps to leave the city of New Orleans."
Art gallery owner R.R. Lyons boarded up the windows and doors of his store on Royal St., and said he would take shelter on the third floor of the building to escape any possible storm surge and flooding.
"We didn't board up for the last one, but word on the street is that this one is going to be a Category 4 storm. That could take our glass out, and some of our glass goes back to the 1890s," Lyons said.
President George W. Bush declared an emergency in Louisiana, a measure that allows federal emergency assistance to be deployed.
The storm was larger and more powerful than when it hit Florida's southeast coast on Thursday, killing seven.
Insured losses from Katrina's first strike on U.S. shores were estimated at $600 million to $2 billion by independent forecasting firms. That compared with an estimated $45 billion in total damages caused in 2004 by four powerful hurricanes that struck Florida in a six-week period.
The Gulf of Mexico is home to roughly a quarter of U.S. domestic oil and gas output, and the storm's impact could well be felt at gas station pumps by U.S. car drivers already struggling with soaring gasoline prices.
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"U.S. energy companies said U.S. Gulf of Mexico crude oil output was cut by more than one-third on Saturday as Hurricane Katrina appeared poised to charge through central production areas, much like Hurricane Ivan did last September."
New Orleans braces as Hurricane Katrina bears down
Aug 28, 1:02 AM (ET)
By Michael Depp and Russell McCulley
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (Reuters) - Shopkeepers sandbagged galleries and stores in the French Quarter of the vulnerable Gulf Coast city of New Orleans and workers boarded up city hall as Hurricane Katrina churned across Gulf waters.
Officials in the low-lying city famed for its Mardi Gras parades urged residents to evacuate and stranded tourists to shelter on at least the third floor of their hotels as Katrina threatened to make a second and possibly more deadly assault on the U.S. coast after killing seven people in Florida.
"I think there is a very good possibility it will indeed get stronger," Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, told WSVN television in Miami.
"This hurricane has the potential to cause extreme damage and large loss of lives if they don't take action very soon."
By 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT) on Saturday, Katrina was about 335 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River with 115 mph (190 kph) winds.
It had begun a turn to the northwest that could see it roaring ashore somewhere between the Florida-Alabama border and Morgan City in Louisiana on Monday, and taking a course through the heart of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production.
Computer models showed that New Orleans, much of which lies below sea level, could be in the storm's bull's eye. They also indicated Katrina could grow into at least a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale with destructive winds of more than 131 mph (210 kph).
Some predictions saw it becoming a catastrophic Category 5 -- like Hurricane Andrew which struck south of Miami in 1992 and ranks as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, or Hurricane Camille in 1969, which just missed New Orleans but devastated Louisiana and Alabama and killed more than 400.
EXODUS
New Orleans officials turned some major routes out of the city into one-way streets, helping to speed the exodus.
Mayor Ray Nagin said the Louisiana Superdome would become a giant shelter for people with special needs on Sunday. As for others, Nagin said he hoped "people are taking the necessary steps to leave the city of New Orleans."
Art gallery owner R.R. Lyons boarded up the windows and doors of his store on Royal St., and said he would take shelter on the third floor of the building to escape any possible storm surge and flooding.
"We didn't board up for the last one, but word on the street is that this one is going to be a Category 4 storm. That could take our glass out, and some of our glass goes back to the 1890s," Lyons said.
President George W. Bush declared an emergency in Louisiana, a measure that allows federal emergency assistance to be deployed.
The storm was larger and more powerful than when it hit Florida's southeast coast on Thursday, killing seven.
Insured losses from Katrina's first strike on U.S. shores were estimated at $600 million to $2 billion by independent forecasting firms. That compared with an estimated $45 billion in total damages caused in 2004 by four powerful hurricanes that struck Florida in a six-week period.
The Gulf of Mexico is home to roughly a quarter of U.S. domestic oil and gas output, and the storm's impact could well be felt at gas station pumps by U.S. car drivers already struggling with soaring gasoline prices.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"U.S. energy companies said U.S. Gulf of Mexico crude oil output was cut by more than one-third on Saturday as Hurricane Katrina appeared poised to charge through central production areas, much like Hurricane Ivan did last September."
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