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Survivors of Hurricane Katrina watched in horror as Hurricane Gustav threatened to wipe out their rebuilding efforts in New Orleans and along the Louisiana coast.

Veterans of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 said they feared Gustav would finish the job.

Many evacuees confessed that they would not have the strength to return home to New Orleans if Gustav proved any near as devastating.

Kady Quirk, 19, a student in New Orleans who took refuge with her boyfriend’s family in the inland town of Lafayette, said she would abandon the “Big Easy” forever if her home was flooded again as it was during Katrina.

“I’ll go back if it’s all right. But a lot of people will leave New Orleans if it’s bad. I don’t think they’ll go back. People are just finishing rebuilding. I do not think they will go through it all over again,” she said. “I am going to leave, find a different school.” Vera Ruiz, a former Wal-Mart worker who moved to the inland town of Lafayette after her home in New Orleans was destroyed by a tornado spawned by Hurricane Katrina. But she said she wished she had moved further away from New Orleans because Lafayette lay in Gustav’s path.

“I feel sick. “It’s very, very sad,” she said, predicting the lastest storm would persuade others to move away.

“I think most people have evacuated. “I think there will be more like me, staying gone,” she said. “It’s going to be happen again. You can watch TV and see the water topping the levees.” Rick Calamia Jr sat out Katrina as the storm ravaged his home in Metairie, Louisiana, but left when water and electricity remained out. He wanted to stay put again yesterday, but his girlfriend insisted they evacuate to protect her son. He said the couple would return home after the storm, even though they know it will all happen again.

“Emotionally, it makes you want to leave. It makes you think: Why am I staying here? This is going to happen every two or three years,” he said. “But my livelihood is here. I am an electrical contractor so it’s just more work for me.” Liz Stiel, an insurance agent in Franklin, Louisiana, said humans should just abandon New Orleans if it is devastated again.

“Give it back to Nature. Let it go. People are not going to go back,” she said. “I think a lot of people have not come back because of fear of this and it’s, ’Here we go again.’” Cheryl Clifron, a New Orleans native who lives in Chalmette, near the city, said Gustav was forcing her to relive Katrina, which inundated her home with 13 feet of water

“It’s scary. I do not know what I am going home to. I do not know how bad it’s going to be,” she said. “I do not trust the walls. I am only a couple of blocks from the river. I am basically surrounded by water. Am I going to go home and have no house, or have no furniture because it’s all covered in water?” she said. “Where I am, there are just four houses that have people. The rest is just gutted houses. The lady in the house next to me has just now finishing fixing up her house after Katrina.

“If we get the amount of water we had for Katrina that is going to be the end of it,” she said. “People are not going to go back. What are you going to go back to?” Many evacuees feared their abandoned homes might be looted while they were away.

Mrs Beatrice Boyer left her home in Baradis on the coast, but her 85-year-old husband Joseph insisted on staying behind to protect his home. “I’m worried. He’s got a mind of his own. He just did not want to leave the house,” she said.

Bill Boyd, their son-in-law, said Mr Boyer was armed and ready to repel looters. “It’s a ghost town. Everyone has left. He does not want to see looters. There was looting everywhere during Katrina.

“The young man next door is a fireman and has a couple of boats. They are only a couple of blocks from a high school and they could go up to the second floor. So they have a plan,” he said.

Not everyone was so sanguine, however. “It’s horrible,” said John Malveaux, 24, who moved to his parents house in Lafayette. “Our parents have got a stronger home. I wanted to leave. But I would be the only one. I would rather be with the family than by myself.”

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