Hurricane Gutsav claims 7 lives

Though the extent of the damage caused is not measured yet, the hurricane has claimed 7 lives and the re is expected to be more losses. Hurricane did not have a full impact on the coast of new orleans. Authorities are reporting seven deaths related to Hurricane Gustav.

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 an accident driving between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.



Before arriving in the U.S., Gustav was blamed for at least 94 deaths in the Caribbean.

Gustav slammed into the heart of Louisiana's fishing and oil industries with 110 mile-an-hour winds today. It delivered only a glancing blow to New Orleans, three years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

There was damage elsewhere in Louisiana. A levee in the southeast part of the state is on the verge of collapse. As many as 300 homes in Plaquemines (PLAK'-uh-minz) Parish are threatened. Officials are scrambling to fortify the levee.

At 8 p.m. Eastern time, Gustav had top sustained winds of 75 miles-an-hour. The National Hurricane Center says it's expected to weaken further during the next 24 hours.

Gutsav strikes Lousiana, misses new orleans by a thread

GUTSY gutsave for thats what I call this hurricane thats reached the coast of USA is wreaking havoc at Lousiana. with huge waves breaking at the shores. The best hope for us is to beieve that it would not be as bad as the Katrina but still, somekind of a natural disaster is always feared and lets pray to the mighty God Almighty that his hand be there forever to safeguard us from these disasters

A huge storm surge has struck the Louisiana coast with 14-ft waves breaking against protective levees as Hurricane Gustav made landfall southwest of New Orleans.

Tornadoes whirled around the outskirts of the deserted city after the hurricane ploughed into the low-lying Louisiana coast, driving high waves across the levees and threatening dangerous floods.

New Orleans is still reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in autumn 2005 - sending tens of thousands of people to live in nearby parts of Louisiana and Texas.

At least three critically ill people are now reported to have died while they were being evacuated from the danger zone by National Guard troops, who were moving into the city with rescue workers.

Spray and high waves whipped over the top of the Industrial Canal levee, one of those that burst three years ago, destroying the city's Ninth Ward.

As the storm moved into land, it weakened to a category 2 storm, but with winds of about 110mph and a large surge of water flowing in from the Gulf of Mexico, it was poised to do more damage.

"We are concerned about any of this overtopping," said Major Tim Kurgan of the Army Corps of Engineers.

"These walls are all safe to the top," he stressed, with the levees still undergoing a 15-billion-dollar rebuilding program after Katrina's enormous damage.

However, officials said they expected a new wave of water to hit the coast later today, sending flood water across the protective barriers.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who has ordered a curfew and vowed to throw looters into prison, told local television the city had become a "ghost town" after a mandatory evacuation forced nearly two million people to flee.

Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's governor, early issued a plea to the roughly 100,000 people still left on the coast, telling them: "If you've not evacuated, please do so. There are still a few hours left."

In New Orleans, a dawn to dusk curfew was enforced by police and National Guardsmen roaring through the deserted streets in Humvee vehicles.

Gustav, which has already killed at least 94 people in the Caribbean, appeared to have claimed the lives of another three following unconfirmed reports that three patients in critical care had died during the evacuation of Louisiana hospitals.

Something good in a bad - oil prices fall due to the hurricane

As always, something good is sure to happen when some bad befalls, and this time the good following the new orleans hurricane event is the fall in the oil prices,. At least now we'll be able to afford the price per gallon. Though the market is still unstable as a result of the hurricane's out come, its expected to stabilize very soon.

Crude oil fell, reversing earlier gains, after Hurricane Gustav weakened, easing concern of widespread damage to drilling rigs and refineries.

Gustav has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm, the second-weakest of the five levels of hurricane strength, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its latest advisory. Preparations for the storm closed 96 percent of offshore oil production and about 10 percent of U.S. refining capacity.

``The latest forecast shows that while Gustav is perfectly aimed at the heart of U.S. oil and gas production it's not quite as strong as was initially feared,'' said Mike Wittner, Societe Generale's London-based head of oil research. ``The refining system is not as stretched this time round compared with Rita and Katrina.''

Crude oil for October delivery fell as much as $3.01, or 2.6 percent, to $112.45 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and traded at $113.19 at 2:32 p.m. London time. It earlier rose as much as 2.2 percent to $118.

Gulf Coast refineries have cut at least 1.56 million barrels a day of production, about 9.8 percent of the U.S. total. Gustav, packing winds of 115 miles an hour (240 kilometers an hour) was 85 miles south of New Orleans at 6 a.m. Miami time, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Still, Gustav is two categories below the peak strength reached by Hurricane Katrina, which sent oil prices to records after wrecking refineries around New Orleans three years ago. Katrina's intensity was greatest over the gulf, where it damaged rigs, platforms and undersea oil and gas pipelines. It then weakened to a Category 3 hurricane before reaching land.

Workers Evacuated

Workers from more than 70 percent of the platforms and rigs in the gulf have been evacuated as Gustav approaches, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. About 1.25 million barrels a day of oil and 6.09 billion cubic feet of gas have been shut, or more than 96 percent of offshore oil output and 82 percent of gas production.

The Gulf of Mexico normally produces about 1.3 million barrels of oil and an estimated 7.4 billion cubic feet of gas a day, according to the Minerals Management Service, part of the U.S. Interior Department.

Nymex electronic trading opened early today to allow traders to respond to Gustav. Trades will be recorded as part of the Sept. 2 session because of today's U.S. Labor Day holiday.

Brent crude oil for October settlement was down $2.46, or 2.2 percent at $111.59 barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange.