Gustav leaves a difficult trail in its wake with others hot on its heels

Mayor C. Ray Nagin said Tuesday night that most residents would have to wait until just after midnight on Thursday morning to return, because power and medical care were not back to normal. A curfew will remain in effect at night.

The delay in returning left many sweltering and frustrated at the city’s edges, out of gas, money and food after several days on the run. A dozen or so people waited it out in the parking lot of a closed Circle K gas station in LaPlace, 30 miles from New Orleans, and dozens of others were in the same situation across Lake Pontchartrain, in St. Tammany Parish, according to officials and local radio reports.

Though New Orleans wouldn't officially open its doors until midnight, outlying communities were already welcoming residents back. Mayor Ray Nagin said no one would be turned away from the city if they tried to come in early, but warned that New Orleans was still in a "very, very vulnerable state."

"I don't want people heading in yet," Nagin said. "But if they jumped the gun, we will let them through."

“They should let people back in, the storm is over with,” said Dominique Jones, a landscaper from east New Orleans who was leaning, shirtless in the broiling heat, against his truck, while his wife, Kim, a security guard, sat inside. “We might not have lights, but we can light candles. We have canned goods. We don’t have anything out here. We’re dead broke.”

Merlene Demourelle, a Mid-City resident, dismissed the inconveniences that awaited her at home.

“We’re tired, we’re hungry, we’re out of money, and we want to take a bath,” she said. “Sleeping in darkness — we’re used to that in New Orleans. Our lights always go off.”

Ms. Demourelle and three traveling companions from the city told of the hostility they encountered upstate and of being turned away from shelters in towns like Alexandria, Bunkie and Livonia.

“We slept in the parking lot during the hurricane,” she said of a church in Alexandria.

Her husband, Ronald, added, “We told them we was from New Orleans, and they wouldn’t take us.”

Haitian authorities on Wednesday reported four more deaths caused by Hanna, raising the toll to 25.

Floodwaters swamped a hospital in the Les Cayes area, forcing nurses to move patients to higher floors. At least 5,000 people in Les Cayes remained in shelters, said Jean-Renand Valiere, a coordinator for the civil protection department.

Farther out in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Ike was gaining power, with winds close to 70 mph -- just short of hurricane strength, according to the hurricane center's latest advisory. The center said it was too soon to predict where, or whether, Ike would hit land.

Hanna dumped rain on Haiti on Tuesday and Wednesday, causing severe flooding in the port city of Gonaives. Rescue efforts were hampered by flooded bridges and roads, some of which Hurricane Gustav washed out last week, a local official said.

Haitian authorities said Hanna was responsible for 23 deaths there, The Associated Press reported. Hurricane Gustav killed at least 51 people in Haiti, and Hurricane Fay killed at least 10 there earlier in August.

The flurry of Atlantic storms underscored predictions for a busier than normal hurricane season and was worrisome news for USoil and natural gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico, millions of people living in the Caribbean and on US coasts, and farmers fearing flooded fields.

"Normally in an active season, there are bunches of hurricanes and lulls. It just doesn't seem like there's been bunches of lulls. I sure hope we're not talking (hurricanes) Christmas Eve," said meteorology professor Hugh Willoughby at Florida International University.