By Prensa Latina,
Washington : Reservists and specialized personnel intensified the evacuation of the US city of New Orleans, Louisiana, in face of the threat of Hurricane Gustav that caused the declaration of emergency state in Louisiana and Mississippi since Saturday.
US TV network Fox News reported that many old and disabled people began to be transferred to safer areas last night.
Because of the imminent arrival of Hurricane Gustav, now threatening to cross Cuba with Category 3, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, decreed the evacuation of the city.
Nagin stated that it is obligatory to leave the city, reason for which about 700 buses for those who do not have any means of transport were hired.
With this decision, the authorities try to avoid what had happened three years ago, with the course of dangerous Hurricane Katrina, which only in the city caused the death of 2,000 people and losses for more than 80 billion dollars.
Because a great part of the city is protected by dikes or below the level of the sea, the US southern metropoli is an easy target for such those climatic phenomena.
On the other hand, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal ordered the mobilization of 3,000 members of the National Guard, while another 2,000 stay on alert.
Gustav has now a Category 3 in the Saffir Simpson scale, with sustained winds of 121 miles per hour and gusts of 137 miles per hour.
This Saturday the hurricane will penetrate in the west of Cuba, and then it will enter the Gulf of Mexico, before arriving in the south of the United States on Monday night or Tuesday morning.