Gustav Becomes Category 3 Hurricane

Louisiana begins voluntary evacuations as Gustav Turns into Category 3 Hurricane.

New Orleans residents are being told there will be no shelters for those who stay as the city is calling for evacuations of residents and the city's emergency preparedness director, Jerry Sneed, is warning residents who ignore orders to leave accept "all responsibility for themselves and their loved ones."

New Orleans began city-assisted evacuations at 8 a.m. local time, an e-mail from Mayor Ray Nagin's office said. This time, the city has taken steps to ensure no one has an excuse not to leave. The state has a $7 million contract to provide 700 buses to evacuate the elderly, the sick and anyone around the region without transportation.

The President and the Governor of Louisiana took action yesterday by issuing a declaration of emergency which coincidently landed on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

See our other post on Hurricane Gustav for a current storm tracker. We also have the current Atlantic storm basin if you scroll to the very bottom of the page.

With another storm T.S. Hanna also in the area, it makes me wonder if we are going to see a full repeat of the one two punch of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita again.

Hopefully everyone will leave the area this time, but I suspect there will be a few who stay behind, there always is. With the Governments telling them they are on their own I wonder how the response to the aftermath will take shape.

I will make updates over the weekend as the situation changes. Be sure to check back.

AP Video.

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