UPCity, state get ready for Gustav

From staff and AP reports

Deadly Tropical Storm Gustav drenched Jamaica and menaced the Cayman Islands today, setting off alarm from Cuba to New Orleans — and at gas pumps across the United States.

Gustav ripped off roofs, downed power lines and pounded rain into Jamaica, triggering landslides and flooding but no reported deaths. At least 67 people died earlier in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm could wind up almost anywhere in the Gulf of Mexico, but the currently projected track would carry it to Louisiana — perhaps as a major hurricane — by Tuesday.

Vicksburg residents wasted no preparation time. A shipment of 60 generators sold out within an hour at The Home Depot on South Frontage Road.

“Hopefully, we won’t have to take them out the box,” said Jerry Stuart, exiting the store with a growing stream of customers behind him carrying the $799 generators under the eye of Vicksburg police. The officers had been dispatched to the store for a presence in the case of a mob scene, but the sales appeared to go smoothly.

“I have one already, but I have friends and neighbors that need them,” Stuart said. “I’ll stay to help others.”

Officials began planning in earnest this morning with a meeting of Vicksburg and Warren County emergency management personnel at the Warren County Courthouse.

Vicksburg Area Red Cross volunteers were planning to staff unnamed-so far shelters for the expected influx of residents from the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Louisiana.

Gov. Haley Barbour late Thursday declared an emergency for all areas south of Interstate 20. Coastal residents were to be taken to shelters in Jackson via public school buses from the capital city. Shelter sites were expected to be identified soon by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

Projected tracks by the National Hurricane Center still have Tropical Strom Gustav turning into a Category 3 storm with top winds of 115 mph, striking the central Louisiana coast at 1 a.m. Tuesday just south of Morgan City and Houma. Computer models have the storm then skirting the coast and moving northwest toward Lake Charles, which was slammed by Hurricane Rita just three weeks after Katrina devastated southeast Louisiana and coastal Mississippi three years ago today.

The hurricane center said the storm was centered near Jamaica’s western coast this morning and it was moving toward the west-northwest near 8 mph (13 kph). Gustav’s maximum sustained winds were near 65 mph (100 kph) with higher gusts.

Forecasters said it could strengthen back into a hurricane before slamming into Grand Cayman today and into the western tip of Cuba Saturday.

In the Cayman Islands, some hotels closed and those that remained open encouraged guests to leave, but officials urged calm. Theresa Foster, one of the owners of the Grand Caymanian Resort, said Gustav didn’t look as threatening as Hurricane Ivan, which destroyed 70 percent of Grand Cayman’s buildings four years ago.

“Whatever was going to blow away has already blown away,” she said.

Jamaica evacuated low-lying areas, closed the capital’s main airport and halted bus service even as people streamed into supermarkets for emergency supplies.

Oil prices opened on world markets this morning at $116 a barrel, down from a week high of $120 early Thursday.

The Gulf has 4,000 oil rigs and half of America’s refining capacity. Hundreds of offshore workers have already been pulled out and analysts said the storm could send U.S. gas prices back over $4 a gallon.

Meanwhile, still well out in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Hanna was marching westward and forecasters said it might pose a threat to the Bahamas by the middle of next week. It had sustained winds near 50 mph. Little change in strength was expected today, but the hurricane center said Hanna could become a hurricane in the next few days.

Forecasters cautioned that the path of Gustav — like that of most hurricanes — remained uncertain.

“It is simply impossible to determine exactly where and when Gustav will make final landfall,” said Richard Knabb of the hurricane center. “The chances of hurricane-force winds within the next five days are essentially the same at each individual location from the Florida Panhandle coast westward through the entire coastline of Louisiana.”

But with Hurricane Katrina’s third anniversary falling on today, Louisiana wasn’t taking any chances. Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency to lay the groundwork for federal assistance. Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a disaster declaration, and together they put 8,000 National Guard troops on standby.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said he would order a mandatory evacuation of the city if forecasters predict a Category-3 strike — or possibly even a Category-2 — within 72 hours. Both Jindal and Nagin were meeting with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.