Worst believed over for storm-hit New Orleans

A US Navy ship and three barges are seen on the Industrial Canal after they broke their moorings and drifted into a railroad bridge as Hurricane Gustav struck the Gulf Coast on Monday in New Orleans. Hurricane Gustav weakened to a category one storm after it crashed ashore in Louisiana west of New Orleans, the National Hurricane Centre said. Photo: AFP

New Orleans shrugged off a pounding blow by Hurricane Gustav, with relieved officials saying the city appeared to have avoided a repeat of the catastrophe of three years ago when Katrina struck with deadly effect.
"It's been a hell of a day," St. Bernard Parish chief sheriff's deputy Jimmy Pohlmann told AFP as National Guard soldiers reinforced a nearby overflowing levee with sand bags at sundown Monday.
"I think the worst has passed," he said. "But it always seems when you think you have everything under control something bad happens."
Gustav pounded the US Gulf coast Monday with ferocious rain and wind, but the partially rebuilt levees in New Orleans appeared to be holding almost three years to the day since Katrina swamped the fabled jazz city.
An estimated 10,000 residents remained in the city after nearly two million people fled coastal areas over the weekend -- an exodus authorities described as the biggest evacuation in US history.
At least seven deaths were blamed on Gustav, Louisiana officials told US media, bringing the storm toll to more than 100 dead after the storm battered the Caribbean for days.
Four victims on Monday died in accidents during evacuations and three critically ill hospital patients died while they were transferred from local medical centres, local officials said.
The toll for the Caribbean was at 96, with most of the victims killed in Haiti.
Fallen tree branches and downed power lines crisscrossed streets in New Orleans's Upper Ninth Ward -- ground zero of the 2005 disaster. The wind ripped siding, gutters and roof tiles from houses in the mostly deserted city.
A convoy of National Guard soldiers rode through flood water in the poor neighbourhood, determined to ferret out residents defiantly seeking to outlast the hurricane, and to prevent a repeat of the post-Katrina anarchy.
The storm slammed ashore Monday morning as a Category Two hurricane packing winds of 110 miles (175 kilometres) per hour but Gustav weakened overland and by Monday evening it had been downgraded to a tropical storm, the National Hurricane Centre said.
By 1:00 am (0600 GMT), the storm carried winds of 45 miles (75 kilometres) per hour with the centre of the storm about 50 kilometres southwest of Alexandria, Louisiana. It was headed for eastern Texas later Tuesday, forecasters said.
"Gustav continues to weaken over Louisiana while dropping heavy rains," the centre said.
More than 400 of those who chose not to evacuate were hunkered down in St. Bernard Parish at its border with Plaquemines parish as soldiers, police, residents and prisoners beefed up the earthen wall with sand bags.