New Orleans Mayor Orders Evacuation

New Orleans mayor orders evacuation

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/New_Or...tion_0830.html

Reuters
Published: Saturday August 30, 2008

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Saturday ordered an evacuation of the city starting early on Sunday to prepare for what he called "the mother of all storms."

The evacuation order, which will not be physically enforced by officials, will start with the city's low-lying West Bank starting at 8 a.m. CDT (1300 GMT) on Sunday, followed by the East Bank at noon CDT (1700 GMT), Nagin told reporters at City Hall.

"I must tell you, this is the mother of all storms," Nagin said. "You need to be concerned and you need to get your butts moving and out of New Orleans right now."

Nagin's announcement brought all the city's residents -- pegged at 239,124 by the U.S. Census Bureau as of July 2007 -- under an evacuation order for the first time since Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city in 2005, and Hurricane Rita that followed on its heels.

Residents have the choice to remain behind and weather the storms, but "that would be one of the biggest mistakes that you could make in your life," Nagin said.