It is horrifying to hear that last week when Hurricane Gustav was a Category 4 storm, it killed at least 51 people in southwestern Haiti and 8 in the Dominican Republic. It then blasted over Cuba. And despite 250,000 people being evacuated from the storm’s path, many people were injured on Cuba’s Isle of Youth.

Even with the threat of Gustav approaching and having heard those statistics and knowing what Hurricane Katrina did, some New Orleans residents, without having cars or money for gas or anywhere to go, refused to leave. For those staying behind, the city imposed a “dusk-to-dawn” curfew—a citywide curfew that will continue until the threat of the storm passes. However, two million people in coastal Louisiana and the New Orleans area DID evacuate.

When Gustav struck Louisiana this morning, it was a Category 3 storm and then was downgraded to Category 2—still a pretty ferocious storm. (I’ve heard that’s one category less than what Katrina was in 2005.)

I wonder what happened to those residents who remained. Did they board up their houses? Did they gather sand bags? Despite officials saying this would be the storm of the century, those residents had been quoted as saying, “Really…How bad do you think it’s gonna get? Ah, it’s gonna turn north.”

Last I heard, Gustav is 70 miles from New Orleans (but sending whitecaps over levees). But Tropical Storm Hanna isn’t far behind. Let’s hope and pray those tenacious people will be OK.

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My friend
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