Hurricane Gustav category 4 -5

GUSTAV IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CATEGORY FOUR HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE. THERE ARE UNOFFICIAL REPORTS FROM PINAR DEL RIO PROVINCE OF WINDS NEAR THESE ESTIMATES. SOME FLUCTUATIONS WITH AN OVERALL SLIGHT STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS... AND GUSTAV COULD REACH CATEGORY FIVE INTENSITY DURING THIS PERIOD. GUSTAV IS FORECAST TO REMAIN A MAJOR HURRICANE THROUGH LANDFALL ALONG THE NORTHERN GULF COAST.

-HURRICANE GUSTAV INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 25A

Post updated. "A land strike to the west of New Orleans will place this great city within the most dangerous part of the storm," said one forecaster, adding: "Gustav has the potential to generate much more damage than Katrina did."

At 11 a.m. Miami time "the storm was located 185 miles (295 kilometers) east of Cuba's western tip with maximum winds of 125 miles per hour." The storm "will pass over Cuba today and tonight, before it emerges into the southern Gulf of Mexico tomorrow, where it will strengthen and reach the Louisiana coast the night of Sept.1."**

This information from New Orleans blows me away:

The city estimated that those needing assistance would number about 30,000.

Unlike the situation during Katrina, there will be no "shelter of last resort," the city said. In 2005, the city's Louisiana Superdome housed thousands of New Orleanians who couldn't, or didn't, heed the mandatory evacuation order.

The arena -- which grew dark, hot and increasingly fetid after the electricity failed and the plumbing was overwhelmed in the storm -- became a symbol of the disaster and the much-maligned government response to it.*

How can you not have a shelter-of-last-resort? As if everybody is going to get out. Some surely will not. FEMA claims to have prepared 800 buses and trains, and is counting on everyone without a car getting on board one of these.
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- Jotman's Hurricane Gustav emergency resources links.
- More about Hurricane Gustav, including tracking map.
* CNN "Hurricanes are ranked 1-5 in intensity on the Saffir-Simpson scale. A Category 3 hurricane has sustained winds from 111 to 130 mph and is capable of causing extensive damage. A Category 4 has winds of 131 to 155 mph and can cause extreme damage."
- Hurricane Gustave Special advisory: most recent here.