As it prepares to mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has been forced to draw up an emergency evacuation plan to deal with tropical storm Gustav, which is was predicted to reach hurricane strength in the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm has already killed 22 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and today it moved away from the Central American coast and into the Caribbean.

The eye of the storm was expected to pass Jamaica today as it sweeps towards the United States. The National Hurricane Centre in Miami predicts that it will grow in power as it approaches Louisiana over the weekend.

US National Guard troops are standing by as residents prepare to mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, left the Democratic National Convention in Denver to return home for the preparations.

Some of the residents, who were displaced personally or knew victims of Katrina, were watching the weather forecast with trepidation.

“I’m panicking,” said Evelyn Fuselier of Chalmette, whose home was submerged in 14 feet of floodwater when Katrina hit.

Ms Fuselier returned to her house exactly one year ago, and now she is terrified that her ordeal could be repeated: “I keep thinking: Did the Corps fix the levees? Is my house going to flood again? Am I going to have to go through all this again?”

Govwernor Bobby Jindal has declared a state of emergency to lay the groundwork for federal assistance, and put 3,000 National Guard troops on standby.

City officials have begun preliminary planning to evacuate and lock down the city to ensure there would be no repeat of the disaster following the 2005 storm. There will be no mass shelter like the one at the Superdome last time around. Instead the state has arranged for buses and trains to take people further away from the coast.

Steve Weaver, 82, and his wife stayed for Katrina and had to be plucked off the roof of their house by a Coast Guard helicopter. This time, Mr Weaver has no inclination to ride out the storm.

“Everybody learned a lesson about staying, so the highways will be twice as packed this time,” he said.

Since Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers has spent billions of dollars to improve the levee system, but because of two quiet hurricane seasons, the flood walls have never been tested.

A day after stalling off Haiti’s coast, Gustav was today centred about 80 miles east of Kingston, Jamaica, and moving toward the west-southwest near 8 mph.

The National Hurricane Centre expects the storm to pass very close to Jamaica later today. Its maximum sustained winds were near 50 mph.

Forecasters have predicted that Gustav could strengthen to a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 111 mph or higher in the coming days before landing on US soil somewhere between the Florida Panhandle and Texas.

The storm formed on Monday before going onshore near the southern Haitian city of Jacmel with top winds near 90 mph on Monday. It triggered flooding and landslides that killed 23 people in the Caribbean.

It weakened into a tropical storm and appeared headed for Jamaica, though it is likely to grow stronger in the coming days by drawing energy from warm, open water.

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