After Gustav, Louisiana begins process of recovering

Downgraded to a tropical storm, Gustav nudged across northern Louisiana and skirted east Texas early today, dumping as much as eight inches of rain and triggering flash floods. More than 1 million homes were without power and large swatches of Louisiana's southern bayou country remained impassable because of roads obstructed by fallen timber and power lines.

Bush met earlier with Vice President Cheney, advisors and several Cabinet secretaries to assess damage to the oil industry.

Federal emergency officials in a separate news briefing today said early inspections of Gulf Coast oil platforms and other facilities showed no apparent damage. But a full return to production could take as long as two weeks, they warned.

But by late morning, hundreds of motorists impatient to return backed up their cars in a traffic bottleneck on the northern edge of Lake Pontchartain on Interstate 10. Many were attempting to return to St. Tammany Parish. Others tried in vain to enter the parish to make their way south to New Orleans and Jefferson Parish.

Homeowners in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas were also stocking up on plywood, water and other survival items today, readying for Tropical Storm Hanna. Gaining in power and centered over the Bahamas with sustained 70-mph winds, Hanna had turned on a northwest track toward the mainland. The storm was responsible for 14 deaths in Haiti.
  A three-day projection by the National Hurricane Center in Miami forecasts that the storm would see "some strengthening" in the next two days and could reach the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. early Friday.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency in advance of the storm, and emergency officials in Georgia and South Carolina went on alert.

While Gustav’s potential wrath was less than fully realized, Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans does not regret the dire warnings he issued, though in hindsight he says he might have tweaked them a bit. “I would not do a thing differently,” the mayor said today, according to The Associated Press. “I’d probably call Gustav, instead of the mother of all storms, maybe the mother-in-law or the ugly sister of all storms.”

Josephine has officially joined the parade as a tropical storm, though the wind forecasts say that there’s only a small chance that it would become anything more than a category 1 hurricane this week.

Relief teams from World Vision have begun delivering aid to storm victims who were already rebuilding along Mississippi’s Gulf coast when Gustav hit. These new storm victims “hadn’t been able to finish repairing their homes from Katrina,” said the aid group’s spokesperson Rachel Wolff. The group is “working the phones,” she added, to connect victims with local church volunteers who can help repair the latest damage.

As of mid-afternoon, tornado watches were in effect along and east of the Mississippi River, except in some areas of north Mississippi, including Starkville and Macon, McAllister said.

North of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, heavy rains continued to pound portions of the state, especially southwest Mississippi.