NOLA Evacuates/RepCon Cancelled?

Associated Press

After what some people are calling the most compelling political convention in decades -- and others deriding as the "coronation" of Senator Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for President -- the Republicans could be canceling their convention. At least that's a possible scenario according to an advanced news report of a Fox News interview with Senator John McCain.

The website Politico.com is running a story that quotes an interview with Senator McCain which taped on Saturday to air on Sunday. The Politico article reads:

"It just wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near-tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster," McCain told Chris Wallace of "Fox News Sunday" in an interview taped for Sunday. "So we're monitoring it from day to day and I'm saying a few prayers, too."

According to that and other news reports, President Bush and Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal, both scheduled speakers at the convention, may pull out: Jindal for the obvious reason that he is governor of the state about to be hit by the storm; President Bush because, as the Politico article puts it:

The government's botched response to Hurricane Katrina still stings, and Republicans said they doubt the president would come to a political bash if New Orleans were facing a threat.

Now, after that article was written--and after the interview was reportedly taped--Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans ordered a mandatory evacuation of the Crescent City. An Associated Press article reads in part:

Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans on Saturday, directing residents of a city still recovering from the devastation left behind three years ago from Hurricane Katrina to flee from the approaching Hurricane Gustav.

Nagin said an informal evacuation that has taken place for days becomes mandatory at 8 a.m. Sunday on the city's west bank. It becomes mandatory on the east bank at noon.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Spooked by predictions that Hurricane Gustav could grow into a Category 5 monster, an estimated 1 million residents fled the Gulf Coast Saturday -- ahead of the official order to get out of the way of a storm taking dead aim at Louisiana.

Residents took to buses, trains, planes and cars -- clogging roadways leading away from New Orleans, still reeling three years after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed about 1,600 across the region.

Gustav had already killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean, and if current forecasts hold up, it would make landfall Monday afternoon somewhere between the northeast corner of Texas and western Mississippi.

Forecasters warned it was still too soon to say whether New Orleans would take another direct hit, but residents weren't taking any chances judging by the bumper-to-bumper traffic pouring from the city. Gas stations along interstate highways were running out of fuel, and phone circuits were jammed.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said they were surprised at how quickly Gustav gained strength as it slammed into Cuba's tobacco-growing western tip as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane Saturday. It went from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane in about 24 hours, and was likely to become a Category 5 -- with sustained winds of 156 mph or more -- by Sunday.

We'll continue to monitor and keep you informed.

Farai Chideya

Tags: Hurricane Gustav

11:03 PM ET | 08-30-2008 | permalink

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