Hurricane Gustav Weakens To Category 2, Hurricane Force Winds Reach Gulf Coast

On its current direction, Gustav looks likely to make landfall west of the city, which is has yet to recover three years after being devastated by hurricane Katrina. The deputy director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), Harvey E Johnson, said the eye of the storm was expected to pass west of New Orleans. But Johnson said the storm surge was likely to breech levees and at least partially flood the city. He said an estimated 2 million people have been evacuated from Louisiana, though as many as 10,000 remain in the New Orleans area.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Hurricane-force winds are now being felt along the coast of Louisiana, as Hurricane Gustav gets set to roar ashore with Category-3 ferocity. The National Hurricane Center's latest report has the center of Gustav less than 90 miles from New Orleans, moving northwest at about 16 miles-per-hour. Maximum sustained winds are near 115 miles-per-hour, with no strengthening expected before landfall.

...GUSTAV WEAKENS TO A CATEGORY TWO HURRICANE...EYEWALL MOVING ONTO THE SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA COAST... A HURRICANE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM JUST EAST OF HIGH ISLAND TEXAS EASTWARD TO THE MISSISSIPPI-ALABAMA BORDER...INCLUDING THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS AND LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD HAVE BEEN COMPLETED. A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI-ALABAMA BORDER TO THE OCHLOCKONEE RIVER. FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE. AT 800 AM CDT...1300Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE GUSTAV WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 28.9 NORTH...LONGITUDE 90.4 WEST OR ABOUT 80 MILES... 125 KM...SOUTH-SOUTHWEST OF NEW ORLEANS LOUISIANA AND ABOUT 130 MILES...210 KM...SOUTHEAST OF LAFAYETTE LOUISIANA. THIS POSITION IS ALSO ABOUT 20 MILES...35 KM...SOUTHWEST OF PORT FOURCHON ALONG THE LOUISIANA COAST. GUSTAV IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 16 MPH...26 KM/HR...AND THIS MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT DAY OR SO WITH SOME DECREASE IN FORWARD SPEED AND A GRADUAL TURN TOWARD THE WEST- NORTHWEST ON TUESDAY. ON THE FORECAST TRACK...THE CENTER WILL CROSS THE LOUISIANA COAST BY MIDDAY TODAY. REPORTS FROM AIR FORCE RESERVE AND NOAA HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE DECREASED TO NEAR 110 MPH...175 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. THIS MAKES GUSTAV A CATEGORY TWO HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN STRENGTH IS LIKELY BEFORE LANDFALL...WITH WEAKENING EXPECTED TO BEGIN AFTER GUSTAV MOVES INLAND LATER TODAY. HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 70 MILES...110 KM...FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 230 MILES...370 KM. THE NATIONAL OCEAN SERVICE STATION IN SHELL BEACH LOUISIANA RECENTLY REPORTED A WIND GUST OF 64 MPH...104 KM/HR. THE MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE JUST REPORTED BY AN AIR FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT IS 957 MB...28.26 INCHES. AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM SURGE OF 10 TO 14 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDAL LEVELS IS EXPECTED NEAR AND TO THE EAST OF WHERE THE CENTER OF GUSTAV CROSSES THE COAST. GUSTAV IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 6 TO 12 INCHES OVER PORTIONS OF LOUISIANA...SOUTHERN AND WESTERN MISSISSIPPI...ARKANSAS AND NORTHEASTERN TEXAS...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF UP TO 20 INCHES POSSIBLE THROUGH THURSDAY. ISOLATED TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE OVER THE CENTRAL GULF COAST TODAY. REPEATING THE 800 AM CDT POSITION...28.9 N...90.4 W. MOVEMENT TOWARD...NORTHWEST NEAR 16 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...110 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...957 MB. THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT 1000 AM CDT.

WESTERN Cuba woke up on Sunday to a scene of massive devastation after deadly Hurricane Gustav blasted through with winds gusting up to 340 kilometres per hour, wrecking vulnerable coastal towns and knocking out communications and power. Thousands of homes on the coast of the westernmost province of Pinar del Rio were left roofless and sea water from the storm surge nearly reached the levels of roofs on homes on the low-lying Isle of Youth, which was hit directly by the massive huricane Saturday afternoon.

NEW ORLEANS — Spooked by predictions that Hurricane Gustav could grow into a Category 5 monster, an estimated 1 million people fled the Gulf Coast Saturday — even before the official order came for New Orleans residents to get out of the way of a storm taking dead aim at Louisiana. Mayor Ray Nagin gave the mandatory order late Saturday, but all day residents took to buses, trains, planes and cars — clogging roadways leading away from New Orleans, still reeling three years after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed about 1,600 across the region.

MIAMI, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Hurricane Gustav could strengthen into a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm before or shortly after it crosses Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico,

HAVANA (AP) - Gustav is stronger than ever. The storm has quickly grown into a Category 4 hurricane with top sustained winds of 145 miles an hour. Cuba is racing to evacuate more than 240,000 people from western areas in the path of the storm. Gustav already has killed 81 people in the Caribbean. NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Lines of people waiting for buses to take them out of New Orleans are growing longer and traffic is getting heavier on the main highways as Hurricane Gustav strengthens. The powerful storm is on a track for the Gulf Coast.

Havana - The Cuban government evacuated areas of the country's west as hurricane Gustav approached, prompting authorities to elevate to the highest state of readiness. The hurricane strengthened into a "major" category three storm as it neared the coast, and there were fears it could develop into a category four storm with winds of over 200 kilometres an hour. More than 60,000 people were evacuated from low-lying coastal areas in Pinar del Rio and Isla de la Juventud, and medical and emergency rescue teams were on alert.

If Hurricane Gustav sticks to its current path, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says he will issue a mandatory evacuation order at 9 a.m. ET tomorrow. "I would encourage citizens not to wait," he says. City officials expect the storm, already a Category 4 hurricane, to get worse. "It's going to be tough. But New Orleanians are very resilient, very tough, and we'll get through this," the mayor, a Democrat, says.

Just before 6 a.m., the storm had maximum sustained winds near 115 mph (185 kph), making it a Category 3 storm on the five-stage Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity. The storm, which killed up to 77 people in the Caribbean, is still on track to strike the heavy concentration of U.S. oil and natural gas platforms off Louisiana. The most likely track has it going ashore west of New Orleans on Tuesday.