Hurricane Gustav delivered only a glancing blow to New Orleans -- raising hopes the city would escape the kind of catastrophic flooding brought by Katrina three years ago -- but the main punch was landed on the area around Houma to the west.
Gustav hit around 11:30 a.m. today south of Houma and 72 miles southwest of New Orleans, as a Category 2. Forecasters had feared the storm would arrive as a devastating Category 4.
One storm-related death, involving a woman killed when her car ran off Interstate 10 between New Orleans and Baton Rouge and hit a tree, was reported in Louisiana. Gov. Bobby Jindal said alcohol was a factor in that accident.
For most of the past half century, the bayou communities have watched their land disappear at one of the highest rates of coastal erosion in the world. A combination of factors - oil drilling, hurricanes, levees and dams - have destroyed swamps and left the area with virtually no natural buffer against storms.
Gustav arrived with winds of up 110 mph and was expected to dump 20 inches of rain on the area and trigger storm surges up to 12 feet high.
It northwest through Houma, Morgan City and Lafayette.
Morgan City had issued a mandatory evacuation order, which succeeded in clearing out 75 percent of the population. That city is protected by a 24 foot seawall and with levees.
Officials predicted that the area of Port Fourshom and Houma, a major supply base for the oil industry, to be hardest hit.
Houma Parish President Michel Claudet told ABC News the lightly protected area was hammered by 95 mph winds that were strong enough to peel back the roof of the parish firehouse and knock out power to their emergency services center.
Claudet said their biggest concern is that the area has no hurricane levees, and is protected only by drainage levees that are not prepared to handle storm surges from a Category 2 hurricane.
Jindal cautioned that the worst was not over -- that the back end of the storm could have the maximum tidal surges and flooding this afternoon.
Gustav weakened considerably once the entire storm got over land around Lafayette, Jindal said.
From Staff, ABC News and Associated Press reports
