Hurricane Katrina Gains Strength as It Heads for Gulf Coast By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:30 p.m. ET
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Residents of low-lying coastal communities were told Saturday to pack up and head for higher ground before Hurricane Katrina strengthens and takes a ''possible direct hit'' on southeast Louisiana, and motorists lined up for blocks to fill their gas tanks.
The National Hurricane Center posted a hurricane watch for the southeastern coast of Louisiana, including New Orleans. The watch was likely to be extended to other areas.
Katrina was a Category 3 storm with 115 mph sustained wind Saturday, but the hurricane center said it was likely to strengthen over the Gulf of Mexico, where the surface water temperature was as high as 90 degrees -- high-octane fuel for hurricanes. It could become a Category 4 storm with wind of at least 131 mph before landfall early Monday, the center said.
''Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a test. This is the real deal,'' Mayor C. Ray Nagin said at a news conference. ''Board up your homes, make sure you have enough medicine, make sure the car has enough gas. Do all things you normally do for a hurricane but treat this one differently because it is pointed towards New Orleans.''
Louisiana's biggest city largely sits below sea level, a bowl dependent on levees and pumps and holding at least 100,000 people with no way out.
Nagin said the Superdome might be used as a shelter of last resort for people who have no cars, with city bus pick-up points around New Orleans.
Mandatory or voluntary evacuations were called on Grand Isle, Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island, and in the parishes of St. Charles, Lafourche, Terrebonne, Plaquemines and St. Bernard.
''You know, at this juncture, all we can do is pray it doesn't come this way and tear us up,'' said Jeannette Ruboyianes (Roo-buh-YAH-nees), owner of the Day Dream Inn at Grand Isle.
The storm, which formed in the Bahamas, was blamed for seven deaths when it ripped across South Florida on its way to the Gulf.
Louisiana and Mississippi made all lanes northbound on Interstates 55 and 59 for evacuees. Mississippi declared a state of emergency and Alabama offered assistance to its neighbors. Some motels as far inland as Jackson, Miss., 150 miles north of New Orleans, were already booked up.
By 2 p.m. EDT Saturday, the eye of the hurricane was located about 390 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and about 230 miles west of Key West, Fla. It was moving west at nearly 7 mph and was expected to gradually turn toward the west-northwest, the hurricane center said.
''We know that we're going to take the brunt of it,'' Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. ''It does not bode well for southeastern Louisiana.''
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency and the director of his Emergency Management Agency, Robert Latham, urged coastal residents to not wait for evacuation orders.
''I realize that we have done this drill two or three times in the past few months, but we cannot take this storm lightly,'' Latham said.
Some tourists heeded the warnings and moved up their departures.
''The airline was great. They waived all penalties; I had no problem at all,'' said Dawn Wolfcale of Green Bay, Wis.
Others tried but couldn't make it.
''We tried to move it up, but they told us they were all booked up,'' said Terry Evans of Cleveland, whose flight was supported to leave Monday morning. ''We may end up sleeping at the airport.''
Katrina was a Category 1 storm with 80 mph wind when it hit South Florida on Thursday, and rainfall was estimated at up to 20 inches. Risk modeling companies have said early estimates of insured damage range from $600 million to $2 billion.
South Florida utility crews were still working Saturday to restore power to 733,000 customers, down from more than 1 million. Residents waited in lines that stretched for miles to reach state-operated centers distributing free water and ice for those without electricity.
Florida has been hit by six hurricanes since last August. The Panhandle was slammed by Hurricane Ivan last year, then again by Hurricane Dennis this year, both Category 3 storms.
Four people were killed in Florida by falling trees, one man was killed when his car struck a fallen tree, and two people died in their boats.
Katrina is the 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. That's seven more than typically have formed by now in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane center said. The season ends Nov. 30.
------
On the Net:
National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov