New Orleans' Evacuation Ordered

It’s almost inconceivable that everything that has been done to rebuild that area in the last 3 years may very well be blown away.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city beginning 8 a.m. Sunday but urged residents to consider escaping "the mother of all storms" before then.

"You need to be scared," Nagin said of the Category 4 hurricane tearing along Cuba's western coast. "You need to be concerned, and you need to get your butts moving out of New Orleans right now. This is the storm of the century."

The city's west bank is to evacuate at 8 a.m.

Nagin said the city had evacuated roughly 10,000 people Saturday on buses, trains and planes. Buses from collection points would continue running until midnight and resume at 6 a.m. Sunday, he said.

Gustav hit Cuba tonight but wasn’t expected to weaken much and is predicted to strengthen when it gets into the Gulf of Mexico.

Obviously the danger to life and property is the most important part of this story but there is a political element as well.

The Republican ticket of McCain/Palin will be heading to Mississippi on Sunday to see how storm preparations are coming along and quite frankly since there's not much they can do, to be seen to be caring.

More importantly for them however is the affect the storm will have on the Republican convention. At this point landfall is predicted for Monday evening and no one will wants to see a party going on while lives are in danger.

Louisianan Governor Jindal was scheduled to speak at the convention but he along with other officials from across the Gulf Coast region will obviously be staying home to deal with the emergency. President Bush and Vice President Cheney were scheduled to be in St. Paul on Monday but obviously those plans are subject to change.

This is a pretty unprecedented situation in recent history so there is talk of turning the convention into a relief drive but McCain in an interview with FNC raised the possibility of suspending the convention entirely.

"It wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster," McCain told Wallace.

McCain said that he has been in touch with the governors of the Gulf Coast states—where Gustav is expected to make landfall—and that his campaign would continue to monitor the now-Category 4 storm.

"I'm afraid, Chris, that we may have to look at that situation and we'll try and monitor it. I've been talking to Governors Jindal [La.], Barbour [Miss.], Riley [Ala.], Crist [Fla.], I've been talking to all of them," McCain told Wallace. "So we're monitoring it from day to day and I'm saying a few prayers too."

Eventually the politics will shake themselves out. In the meantime, good luck to everyone in the target line, especially any members of moron nation.

posted by DrewM. at 10:51 PM

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