NEW ORLEANS -- Hurricane Gustav slammed into the Louisiana coast Monday morning, bringing heavy rains, strong winds, power outages and flooding.
Gustav is weakening and moving inland after coming ashore as a strong Category 2 hurricane.
The storm made landfall near the heart of Louisiana's fishing and oil industry, bringing a storm surge up to 14 feet up to normal tides, and dumping up to a foot of rain in many areas.
More than a million people in the gulf were without power Monday night, and there were already warnings it could be two weeks before all the lights are back on in Louisiana.
In Mississippi, a 15-foot storm surge flooded homes and inundated the only highways to coastal towns devastated by Katrina.
Meanwhile, emergency managers are warning it's not over yet.
“This is not over,” said Michael Chertoff, the director of FEMA. “Obviously the storm is still hitting parts of the state very hard. I think even as we assess the damage, we don't totally understand or appreciate the full extent of the damage, and there may be some structural resources which are latent, and we haven't seen yet, and we have to be careful about that. And that's one of the reasons I want to underscore not rushing back.”
The storm was moving into Texas, and could drop as much as 20 inches of rain in the state by Thursday.
Levee Concerns
As Gustav continues to move away from the coast, all eyes are now turning to Louisiana's vulnerable levees.
A private levee about 20 miles south of New Orleans is in danger of failing.
Crews have been trying to secure it, but fear it will give way.
Officials are urging anyone left in that area to evacuate as quickly as possible, saying if it goes, the entire east bank could be flooded.
As for New Orleans itself, the Army Corps of Engineers said for now, all levees in the city are holding, even though wind-driven water is coming over the tops of some of the canals.
7 Deaths Blamed On Gustav
Gustav is now being flamed for seven deaths in the U.S.
They include four people fleeing the storm who were killed in Georgia when their car struck a tree.
A couple in their 70s died when a tree struck their relatives' home in Baton Rouge.
Another woman died in a crash driving between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Before arriving in the U.S., Gustav was blamed for at least 94 deaths in the Caribbean.
Oil Prices Drop
Damage to Gulf Coast oil operations still hasn't been assessed, but oil prices fell Monday as Hurricane Gustav weakened.
There were fears the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico would be hit by a much stronger storm, and were evacuated in advance of Gustav's hit.
A stronger dollar gets some of the credit. Oil tumbled to $111 a barrel.
Meanwhile, AAA said the average U.S. retail gasoline price was down slightly to just below $3.69 a gallon, after rising slightly more than a penny Saturday.
Hospitals Evacuated
Many hospitals in the New Orleans area were evacuated ahead of Gustav.
Ambulances and buses were brought in to move patients out of harm's way.
The evacuations began at Tulane Medical Center early Sunday. Only the sickest patients will remain at the hospital.
Florida Ready To Help
Gov. Charlie Crist urged everyone in Florida to say a prayer for those in the path of Hurricane Gustav during a state Emergency Operations Center briefing Monday.
The state is preparing to help the states hit hardest by Gustav, particularly Louisiana.
Florida National Guard members have already helped with medical evacuations. Some Florida National Guard members are already in Louisiana to do the same.
"A team from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission are staging in Pensacola, and will move into Louisiana to provide mutual aid once the storm has passed," Crist said. "The Florida National Guard stands ready to assist, with 9,000 guards readily available."
More shelters are expected to open Monday in the Florida Panhandle because of Hurricane Gustav.
About nine shelters opened along the Panhandle Sunday as many evacuees crossed state lines into Florida.
Gov. Charlie Crist has declared a state of emergency for the Panhandle because of the storm. See previous story.
Bush Briefed On Operations
President Bush is asking Americans to help hurricane recovery efforts by donating to relief agencies.
Bush spoke while visiting Texas where he was briefed on emergency operations for Gustav.
He said he's confident that, once the storm passes, any human need will be met.
"The coordination on this storm is a lot better than during Katrina,” Bush said. “A lot of it had to do with the governors. Yesterday, I was on the video conference with the governors of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. It was clearly in the spirit of sharing assets."
Bush also praised the nearly 2 million Gulf Coast residents who heeded the warnings to evacuate.
Riding Out The Storm
An estimated 10,000 people have stayed behind in New Orleans, despite the order to evacuate.
New Orleans police said they will know how many people stayed behind "when the 911 calls start coming in."
Some residents in the city of Houma, southwest of New Orleans, were still wondering if they should go or stay.
"[We are] probably the only ones here," said one Houma resident deciding whether she wants to ride out the storm at home or somewhere safer. "They have a couple behind us still here, but we're thinking about going. We have a Tennessee place to go. We're just kind of sitting here. We're tanked up, ready to go and packed."
Many evacuees have made their way to Central Florida, and continue to keep a close eye on Gustav, as some still have family members in the Big Easy.
Tatiana Roa, 14, is in constant contact with her second cousin, who is pregnant, but chose not to evacuate because of financial problems.
"She says she's in her house. She has a closet under the stairs if it comes harder," Tatiana said. "Her husband, they let him borrow a generator, so he can stay there, but they don't know if that's a safe place."
The evacuees wanted to wire them money to pay for gas to get them to Orlando, but said no banks or wiring services were open.
The evacuees said their relatives in New Orleans just got back from a trip to Colombia, and did not know about the storm until evacuees called them.
Track Gustav's path with our Hurricane Tracker and downloadable map, available at the News 13 Hurricane Center.
Need help getting ready for a hurricane? Go to News 13 on Demand, Bright House Networks Digital Cable Channel 313, for our Hurricane Center, filled with vital information on what you can do to prepare for a storm. In the Severe Weather section, News 13's meteorologists show you how to be safe when a storm strikes.
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