US Gulf Coast deals with aftermath of Hurricane Gustav

An estimated 1.45 million households remained without power throughout the Gulf Coast, including 300,000 in the New Orleans area. The citys sewage system was also seriously damaged.

Early estimates indicated 8 people had died in the US as a result of the storm, including an elderly couple killed when a tree fell on a house in Baton Rouge and a young man who died when a tree hit his home in Lafayette, Louisiana. Gustav had claimed the lives of as many as 100 in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica and caused severe damage in Cuba as it worked its way through the Caribbean.

In anticipation of potentially catastrophic damage, and with memories of the devastation and loss of life as a result of Hurricane Katrina three years ago, close to 2 million people in the Gulf Coast area had evacuated in advance of Gustav. Some 10,000 people had remained in New Orleans, including the homeless, poor people and others unable or unwilling to leave.