The hardest hit area will be just West of New Orleans, saving it from the highest of storm surges but still having the ability to do major damage. The effects of this powerful storm ar being felt early Monday and the Category 2 starts pounding the Gulf.
The Army Corps of Engineers believes this storm will not cause water to overflow from the New Orleans levee system as it did three years ago to put New Orleans under water according to The New York Times.
The rainfall from the storm will cause flooding in the opinion of Lieutenant General Robert L. Van Antwerp, the commanding general for the corps, because of city's unique location which puts most of New Orleans below water level.
To give people who have never been to New Orleans something to visualize, they compare it with a bathtub.
Nearly two million people from Texas to Alabama fled the coast on Sunday, anticipating a storm that could rival Hurricane Katrina in its destructive power, and that could test the fragile flood defenses of New Orleans.
“Hurricane force winds are moving on shore as we speak,” Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center, said on CNN early Monday morning.
In listening to news reports last night and again this morning, one specific theme came clear from reporters that covered Hurricane Katrina three years ago as well as multiple other storms throughout the years.
Geraldo Rivera said last night, there is no comparison and while there was chaos during Katrina, the amount of preparation, efficiency, selflessness, competence and compassion that was shown on every level during the evacuation of New Orleans for Gustav, made comparing the two storms and how the local officials handled them, like night and day.
Other reports on other channels echoed those sentiments.
Reported on earlier by Bob Ewing, Canadian C-17 aircraft traveled New Orleans and helped transport medically vulnerable people to safety.
Winds starting pounding the Gulf early this morning and the storm itself is expected to make landfall, meaning the eye of the storm will touch land, by noon today from what is forecasted.
Although almost 2 million people did heed warnings and evacuated the areas in danger, there were some that made a decision to stay. Coast Guard rescue workers are preparing to search where possible to see if there are people in need.
Tornado warnings were issued Monday morning for parts of Louisiana, southern Mississippi, northwestern Florida and southwestern Alabama as Gustav moved through the region, according to the National Weather Service.
Readers can find current watches, warnings and advisories for Louisiana
Issued by the National Weather Service on this page.
[Update] Two barges have broken free and are now posing a danger as they pound into the sewage storage and television is showing a person stranded in the water with a life jacket on and they are filming him holding onto a lifeline and swimming, Army Corps of Engineers threw the lifeline and saved him bringing him on board.
The man that was in the water was a part of the Army Corps of Engineers, but no word as to why he jumped into the water in the first place, but he is alright and out of the flowing water.
ABC is reporting that leaking levees are worrying FEMA.
Photos of Gustav's landfall provided at Fox.
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