Caribbean/US

New Orleans evacuated after Gustav hits Cuba

Article published on the 2008-08-31 Latest update 2008-08-31 15:59 TU

People take shelter as Hurricane Gustav hits Los Palacios, 100 km west of Havana
(Photo: Reuters)

Roads out of New Orleans were clogged on Sunday after Mayor Ray Nagin ordered the evacuation of the city, predicting the arrival of "the storm of the century". Hurricane Gustav, which hit parts of Cuba earlier, has weakened to category three but experts say that it could pick up again before hitting the US's Gulf coast.

Anxious to avoid the death-toll claimed by 2005's Hurricane Katrina, and the recriminations that followed it, Nagin has ordered the city to be emptied.

"You need to be scared ... You need to get you butts moving out of New Orleans, right now," he told the city's residents.

The US National Hurricane Centre said that winds have decreased to 205 kilometers per hour, making it a category three on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

But the centre warned that it could regain category four strength by the end of Sunday after moving over the warm waters of the Gulf.

Earlier the storm tore off roofs, flattened buildings and cut off power on Cuba's Isle of Youth, where more than 200,000 people live, before hitting the main island south-west of Havana.

In the US, Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his runnning-mate Sarah Palin decided to suspend normal campaigning and visit Mississipi to look at preparations for he storm's arrival.