Louisiana braces for Isaac on Katrina anniversary

(AP) NEW ORLEANS:



As Tropical Storm Isaac moved steadily toward Louisiana, residents are gearing up for what has become an almost familiar Labour Day week event.



On Sunday, Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency, and officials in some coastal parishes either ordered evacuations or strongly suggested people leave low-lying areas.



New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu also declared a state of emergency but said there are no plans to evacuate the city.



Landrieu urged residents to hunker down and prepare for the possibility for several days without power.



Grocery and home improvement stores as well as fuel stations reported brisk business.



Some gas stations were running out of supplies.



John Corll, 59, a carpenter, rode out Hurricane Katrina seven years ago and was preparing for a milder storm.



"I gassed up — truck and generator," Corll said as he walked out of a New Orleans coffee shop this morning.



He expressed confidence that the area's levee system — rebuilt with billions of federal dollars after Katrina — will withstand Isaac.



And he thinks officials emergency management officials have a better handle on the situation than when Katrina struck in August 2005.



"I think the state and local governments are much better prepared for the storm surge and emergencies," he said.



Isaac, bedeviling forecasters who continued to shift its path westward, was most likely to come ashore by Wednesday, the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.



An estimated 80 percent of New Orleans was flooded during Katrina.



Damage and death was extensive across southern sections of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and rebuilding costs soared into the many billions of dollars.



Adding to the Labor Day week mystique, in 2011, Tropical Storm Lee struck over the Labour Day period, and Hurricane Gustav hit over the Labour Day holiday in 2008.



Katrina struck on August 29, 2005.



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