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| Weather
News |
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| Hurricane Gustav batters US coast |
| Hurricane Gustav batters US coast
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 1-September-2008
8:1:0 AM |
| Authorities have ordered the evacuation of New Orleans, and an estimated 1.9 million people along the Gulf coast have been heading inland.
Some areas are being lashed by stormy weather, as the eye of Gustav is about 20 miles (35km) from Louisiana's coast.
Gustav has been downgraded to a Category Two hurricane, but "extremely dangerous" storm surges are expected.
Meteorologists have been downgrading their assessment of Gustav since last weekend when the mayor of New Orleans called it "the storm of the century".
Reports from "hurricane hunter" aircraft monitoring the storm say maximum wind speeds have dropped to 110mph (175km/h), with higher gusts.
But the BBC's Kevin Connolly, who is in New Orleans, says the tropical winds which precede the fierce heart of the hurricane system are already battering the city, choking storm drains and cutting off power by snapping overhead electricity cables.
Forecasters at the US National Hurricane Center warned that Gustav's winds could bring "extremely dangerous" storm surges 14ft (4.2m) above normal.
Isolated tornadoes are also possible in the area.
For the moment, the army core of engineers responsible for maintaining New Orleans' flood defences seems cautiously optimistic that the sea surges will not overtop the city's levees, our correspondent says.
The exodus from the Louisiana coast is said to be the largest evacuation in state history. Tens of thousands are also reported to have left coastal Mississippi, Alabama and south-east Texas.
The storm has already claimed the lives of more than 80 people in the Caribbean, causing widespread damage in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica over the past week.
In Cuba, the storm brought extensive flooding and some severe damage, but no reports of deaths.
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