Updated on
Summary Obama declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, allowing aid to flow to local authorities.
The people of New Orleans on Monday prepared themselves for yet another hurricane -- seven years after the fabled city of jazz was swamped by Hurricane Katrina, which left 1,800 dead.President Barack Obama, no doubt mindful of the bungled handling of that tragedy by his predecessor George W. Bush, declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, allowing federal funds and aid to flow to local authorities.The president also convened a briefing with officials including Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator (FEMA) Craig Fugate, hours before Tropical Storm Isaac was expected to become a Category One hurricane.Katrina left behind a devastating sprawl of destruction and death when it hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005, and a halting emergency response from the Bush administration was a black mark on his second term in office.The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its 0000 GMT bulletin that Isaac was about 295 miles (470 kilometers) south-southeast of Mobile, Alabama and packing maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour.A hurricane warning was issued earlier for New Orleans and nearby areas as Isaac churned toward the northern Gulf of Mexico coast, with the storm likely to reach hurricane force late Monday or early Tuesday, and then make landfall.Alabama governor Robert Bentley has ordered mandatory evacuations in Mobile and Baldwin, counties that sit on the Gulf Coast.Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who has recommended voluntary evacuations within the hurricane watch area, urged people to prepare for the worst.If you are in low lying areas and are thinking about evacuating, today is the day to do that, he said Monday. If you plan on hunkering down at home, today is the day to get supplies. I strongly encourage people not to wait, added Jindal, who stayed away from the weather-affected Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. Those heeding the call included Tammy Edmondson, who looked anxious as she picked through the grocery shelves at a Target store with her daughter and a friend in tow.Edmonson left town ahead of Katrina and it was a month before she could go home. We had a lot of damage -- were still fixing some of it, she said. FEMA said its National Response Coordination Center had been activated and would handle eventual requests for aid from affected states.The emergency management agency has also deployed four disaster response teams to Gulf states and has moved other resources to pre-positioned command locations closer to the potential storm impact areas.Isaac has been moving slowly so far and was swirling in the Gulf of Mexico about 230 miles (370 kilometers) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, but the storm is beginning to gather pace, the Miami-based NHC said.Isaac is expected to become a hurricane soon, it said. Dangerous surges in water levels could cause flooding on the coast, with the storm dumping up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) of rain on southeastern Louisiana, southern Alabama, Mississippi and the western Florida panhandle.
