More than 1.2 million people in metropolitan New Orleans were warned to get out as 225kph Hurricane Ivan churned toward the Gulf Coast, threatening to submerge the city in what could be the most disastrous storm to hit in nearly 40 years.
Residents streamed inland in bumper-to-bumper traffic in an agonizingly slow exodus Tuesday amid dire warnings that Ivan could overwhelm New Orleans with up to 6m of filthy, chemical-polluted water. About three-quarters of a million more people along the coast in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama also were told to evacuate.
PHOTO: AP
Forecasters said Ivan, blamed for at least 68 deaths in the Caribbean, could reach 257kph and strengthen to Category V, the highest level, by the time it blows ashore as early tomorrow somewhere along the Gulf Coast.
"Hopefully the house will still be here when we get back," said Tara Chandra, a doctor at Tulane University in New Orleans who packed up his car, moved plants indoors and tried to book a Houston hotel room. Chandra said he wanted to ride out the storm, but his wife wanted to evacuate: "All the news reports are kind of freaking her out."
With hurricane-force wind extending 170km from its center -- and forecast to continue as much as 240km inland -- Ivan could cause significant damage no matter where it strikes. Officials ordered or strongly urged an estimated 1.9 million people in four states to flee to higher ground.
"I beg people on the coast: Do not ride this storm out," Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said.
New Orleans, the nation's largest city below sea level, is particularly vulnerable to flooding, and Mayor Ray Nagin was among the first to urge residents to get out while they can.
Up to 3m below sea level in spots, New Orleans is a bowl-shaped depression that sits between the 800m wide Mississippi River and Rhode Island-size Lake Pontchartrain. It relies on a system of levees, canals and huge pumps to keep dry.
The city has not taken a major direct hit from a hurricane since Betsy in 1965, when a 2.4m to 3m storm surge submerged parts of the city. Betsy, a Category III storm, was blamed for 74 deaths in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
Experts said Ivan could be worse, sending water pouring over levees, flooding to the rooftops and turning streets into a toxic brew of raw sewage, gas and chemicals from nearby refineries.
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