New Orleans considers evacuation as Gustav looms

By Kathy Finn

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Three years after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Louisiana coast, New Orleans residents on Wednesday again faced the prospect of an evacuation as Tropical Storm Gustav loomed.

Not since Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which followed in its wake, have residents faced government orders to evacuate their homes and businesses. Many are still struggling to rebuild their lives in a city famed for its jazz clubs and Mardi Gras festival.

On Wednesday, two days before the third anniversary of Katrina's landfall on August 29, 2005, Gustav drifted away from Haiti and the Dominican Republic after killing 23 people. It could hit the U.S. Gulf Coast around Monday.

The storm was expected to strengthen to a hurricane over the Gulf's warm waters, and U.S. landfall could be anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Texas.

But Gustav's most likely track is directly toward New Orleans.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal put New Orleans residents on alert, declaring a state of emergency and saying evacuations could begin as early as Friday, just before the Labor Day holiday weekend.

"Our state is better prepared than it has been before to respond to a major disaster," Jindal said. "But I want to emphasize that our citizens have a personal responsibility."

Storm levees broke under the onslaught of Katrina in 2005, flooding 80 percent of New Orleans and killing almost 1,500 people in the city and along the Gulf coast. The hurricane caused at least $80 billion in wind and flood damage.