The every thing blog: New Orleans faces death again?!

In this post I wont write much, I'll just copy/paste the text from news.bbc.co.uk so I dont leave any info behind.

New Orleans residents have been fleeing in their thousands after the city's mayor ordered an evacuation ahead of Hurricane Gustav's expected landfall.

Roads out of the Louisiana port have been crammed with traffic and authorities have been helping those unable to leave by their own means. Gustav, set to hit the US Gulf Coast on Monday, was described by Mayor Ray Nagin as "the storm of the century". It comes three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. In 2005, three-quarters of the city was flooded after a storm surge breached its protective levees. More than 1,800 people died in coastal areas. At the city's main transit terminal, reports said a line snaked for more than a mile as residents with no other means of getting out waited to board buses bound for shelters in north Louisiana and beyond. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, in New Orleans to observe the evacuation taking place, said about 700 people an hour could be flown out of the city. Gustav weakened to a category three storm (with winds of up to 125mph; 201km/h) after hitting Cuba overnight, but was expected to regain strength in the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall on the US Gulf Coast. At least 300,000 people were evacuated in Cuba as the storm brought extensive flooding and some severe damage, but no reports of fatalities. The BBC's Kevin Connolly, in New Orleans, says Mr Nagin spoke in "passionate and desperate" terms, telling a televised news conference the storm was "so powerful" and growing more powerful every day. "I'm not sure we've seen anything like it," he told reporters at City Hall. He warned that in the West Bank area of New Orleans, the highest levees were just eight to 10 feet, and were at risk from storm surges that could be as high as 24 feet. The floodwalls of the Harvey Canal - a waterway designed to protect residents from surges in Lake Pontchartrain - were not yet completed, the mayor said, warning that water would "punch through holes" and flood nearby areas. "If you are stubborn enough, if you are not taking this as seriously as we need you to take it, and if you decide to stay; you are on your own," he said. "Anyone who decides to stay, I'll say it like I said it before Katrina: make sure you have an axe, because you will be carving your way, or busting your way out of your attic to get on your roof with waters that you will be surrounded with in this event."

Here are some pictures from the evacuation process in New Orleans: