http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5583239.html
New Orleans evacuated as Hurricane Katrina bears down
NEW ORLEANS — Monstrous Hurricane Katrina barreled toward the Big Easy today with 175-mph wind and a threat of a 28-foot storm surge, forcing a mandatory evacuation, a last-ditch Superdome shelter and prayers for those left to face the doomsday scenario this below-sea-level city has long dreaded.
"Have God on your side, definitely have God on your side,'' Nancy Noble said as she sat with her puppy and three friends in six lanes of one-way traffic on gridlocked Interstate 10. "It's very frightening.''
Katrina intensified into a Category 5 giant over the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico on a path to come ashore early Monday in the heart of New Orleans. That would make it the city's first direct hit in 40 years and the most powerful storm ever to slam the city.
The Superdome was named a place of refuge.Cheryl GerberAssociated Press"I'm really scared,'' resident Linda Young said as she fill her gas tank. "I've been through hurricanes, but this one scares me. I think everybody needs to get out.''
Rain began falling on southeastern Louisiana by midday today, the first hints of a storm with a potential surge of 18 to 28 feet, topped with even higher waves, tornadoes and as much as 15 inches of rain.
"We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared,'' Mayor Ray Nagin said in ordering the mandatory evacuation for his city of 485,000 people, surrounded by suburbs of a million more. "The storm surge will most likely topple our levee system.''
Preparing sandbagsDavid J. PhillipAssociated PressConceding that as many as 100,000 inner-city residents didn't have the means to leave and an untold number of tourists were stranded by the closing of the airport, the city arranged buses to take people to 10 last-resort shelters, including the Superdome
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Despite the dire predictions, a group of residents in a poor neighborhood of central New Orleans sat on a porch with no car, no way out and, surprisingly, no fear.
"We're not evacuating,'' said 57-year-old Julie Paul. "None of us have any place to go. We're counting on the Superdome. That's our lifesaver.''
The Superdome, the 70,000-seat home of football's Saints and the New Year's Sugar Bowl, opened at daybreak today, giving first priority to frail, elderly people on walkers, some with oxygen tanks. They were told to bring enough food, water and medicine to last up to five days.
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