Well it has finally been made official. Hurricane Gustav was a category three and was making a bee line straight for New Orleans and surrounding areas. This will be the second time in less than five years that New Orleans was expecting a direct hit from a hurricane that was category three, but there will definitely be differences in this storm and the last one.

When hurricane Katrina hit three years ago so many of the Gulf Coast residents chose to remain at their homes and try to ride the storm out. This time many of those same people did not even have to be asked to leave even though they were required to this time. Over two million people have evacuated New Orleans alone. The eye of the storm is thought to be going to come straight over a town called Morgan City, Louisiana. Traffic was very slow moving as those that were evacuating tried to make it further inland to safer ground.

This time around precautions were taken much earlier than they were with hurricane Katrina. Buses and trains were made ready to evacuate those that had no way to get out on their own. People were asked to make sure they had cash on hand if any was available to them because the ATM machines along the Gulf coast area expected to be affected would probably not work because of power outages. People did as they were asked to and bought their supplies and left the towns in the storms path.

At this moment, New Orleans and other towns in this area are like ghost towns with no one, not even the police and fire departments moving about. Even though the eye of the storm will not go right over New Orleans, is still expected to cause some damage. The expected damage will come in the form of power outages, high tides, and inland flooding. The flash flooding is more likely to be because of very heavy rainfall and not from high tide. There is also the threat of tornadoes causing damage as well.

It is though that this storm will not be as bad as Katrina was, but it has been serious enough so far to make people have to leave their homes. This time is it hoped that when those evacuated people return home they will actually have a home to return. It is always best to remain prepared for the worst in these situations.