NEW ORLEANS — NEW ORLEANS - In the end, it was just a glancing blow. And for that, the Big Easy let out a big sigh of relief.
A weakened Hurricane Gustav blew into southern Louisiana yesterday morning as a less-fearsome Category 2 storm, bearing 110-mph winds that cracked tree branches, knocked out power to a million homes and triggered localized flooding, but apparently spared the vulnerable New Orleans levee system.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Gustav made landfall just before 10 a.m. near the coastal community of Cocodrie, La., about 70 miles southwest of New Orleans in the heart of the state's fishing and oil industry. Forecasters had feared that the hurricane could strike the coast as a catastrophic Category 4 storm - a warning that spurred a huge inland evacuation of up to 95 percent of coastal residents over the weekend.
As the storm spun its way inland later yesterday, dumping heavy rains over central Louisiana on its way into Texas, officials cautioned that storm surges could still buffet the New Orleans region today, putting stress on fragile flood defenses that have still not been fully repaired since their destruction during Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
But with every passing hour, as the winds subsided and the clouds thinned, New Orleans seemed to be in the clear.
By late last night, Gustav had been downgraded to a tropical storm, with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph.
That did not mean Louisiana came through the storm unscathed. A levee in the southeastern part of the state was in danger of collapse, and officials scrambled to fortify it. Roofs were torn from homes, trees toppled and roads flooded. A ferry sank. And the extent of any damage to the oil and gas industry was unclear.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who orchestrated a successful effort to evacuate nearly all of his city's 310,000 residents ahead of Gustav, warned residents not to attempt to return home today because of continuing power outages, sewer problems and debris littering most streets. But their homecoming, he said, was "only days away, not weeks."
"There's damage throughout the city," Nagin told a news conference last night. "The city is not quite ready for our citizens to return." About half the city was without power as dusk fell, but a drive through several neighborhoods indicated that few homes had sustained major wind damage. Police said they had arrested just two looters as of last night, a stark contrast to the lawlessness after Katrina.
