US Gulf Coast prepares for Hurricane Gustav
Updated
![Residents evacuate ahead of Hurricane Gustav, which has now been downgraded to a Catergory 3. [Reuters]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/base/us_hurricanegustav_rtr_3108.jpg?gallery<BR> "Residents evacuate ahead of Hurricane Gustav, which has now been downgraded to a Catergory 3. [Reuters]")
Residents evacuate ahead of Hurricane Gustav, which has now been downgraded to a Catergory 3. [Reuters]
One of the most powerful storms of the season, Hurricane Gustav, is now close to making landfall on the Gulf coast of the United States.
The National Hurricane Centre says the storm is nearing the coast of Louisiana.
It's a category three storm - the same strength as Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city of New Orleans three years ago.
Our North America correspondent, Kim Landers, reports about two million people have already fled the city.
In New Orleans, the streets are deserted, except for the occasional police and National Guard patrols
Shops in the French Quarter are boarded up, but the street lights are still on. The heavy rain has stopped, the night air is muggy and the wind is calm.
Almost all of the quarter-of-a-million people living in the city are gone, and along the Louisiana coast, about two-million people have fled from the path of Hurricane Gustav.
