New Orleans residents have been fleeing in their thousands after the city's mayor ordered an evacuation ahead of Hurricane Gustav's expected landfall.

 

Roads out of the Louisiana port have been crammed with traffic and authorities have been helping those unable to leave by their own means.

 

Gustav, set to hit the US Gulf Coast on Monday, was described by Mayor Ray Nagin as "the storm of the century".

 

It comes three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

In 2005, three-quarters of the city was flooded after a storm surge breached its protective levees. More than 1,800 people died in coastal areas.

 

 

See whole story here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7590426.stm

I don't live near New Orleans, LA, but, I have been contending with effects of Gustav all weekend, what with feeder bands of rains and high winds, and high surf/minor coastal flooding....the storm is just that big....in watching the local news here, Gustav is expected to make landfall within the next 2 hours, to the south and west of New Orleans...

 

One can only hope that the damages won't be as bad as Katrina 3 years ago....