THE Gulf Coast of America is gearing up for a new storm, a year after the onslaught of Katrina claimed 1,695 lives.

The National Hurricane Centre gave warning that Ernesto, which was set last night to lash Haiti with winds of 75mph (120kph), was likely to develop into a powerful and dangerous storm once it moved into the Gulf of Mexico and headed for the US, where it is expected to make landfall on Thursday.

Last night predictions shifted its track towards Florida, revising earlier warnings that New Orleans could be in the line of fire, but the uncertainty of hurricane forecasting had emergency officials across four states scrambling to action.

Jeb Bush, the Governor of Florida, declared a state of emergency yesterday and orded tourists in the Florida Keys to leave. Visitors due to arrive soon are being forced to postpone their trips.

Ernesto had weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm last night, but was expected to regain its status today before reaching Cuba this morning.

The threat from the first hurricane of the 2006 storm season — which lasts until the end of November — has raised more questions about the New Orleans flood defence system, which failed so spectacularly last year.

As the city prepares to mark the first anniversary tomorrow of the disaster, the US Army Corps of Engineers said that it had done its best to repair and rebuild 220 miles (355km) of levee walls, but admitted that should a big hurricane roll in, that may not be good enough.Asked if the levees could be relied on, Lieutenant-General Carl Strock said: “To pinpoint it to one thing and say yes or no is a difficult question to answer.” As he showed off new floodgates intended to prevent storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain pouring into the city, he admitted feeling “remorse” over the role that poor workmanship by the corps had played in last year’s catastrophe. The repairs have been done by an 8,000-strong workforce of civilian contractors and military manpower working non-stop to get as much done before this storm season.

Nevertheless, the city will not have 100 per cent protection until 2010. “Am I pleased with where we are today? No . . . but I think it’s as good as it can possibly be right now,” said Lieutenant-General Strock.

Some residents still distrust the corps. Steve Rosenthal, of the New Orleans campaign group levees.org, said: “The corps has been working very hard but this was a dysfunctional organisation and now they are trying to do in one year what they couldn’t do in forty.”

“People thought what happened here was a natural disaster, that Katrina did all this terrible destruction. But it was caused basically by incompetent engineering design.” As for the current mood: “There’s nervousness. We need to make it through this year,” he said.

“I don’t think the collective psyche can take another flood. When a hurricane appears on the map now you can bet every person in this city feels sick to their stomach.”

In recent days thunderstorms have inundated the low-lying city’s streets, turning a Katrina memorial site into a lake. The 1,464 white flags at Lake Lawn Cemetery represent those lost in New Orleans and Louisiana, 49 of whom remain unidentified in mortuaries. Another 231 died in Mississippi.

This weekend Ava Wichser visited the memorial to honour her mother, Alma Ryburn, 83, an Alzheimer’s patient who died after a helicopter evacuation from hospital. “My mother lived through the Depression, World War Two and the death of two of her sons,” she said.

“But what happened in New Orleans was all too much. It was overwhelming, it was horrific.”

WILD WEATHER

Katrina, in late August, caused more than $80 billion (£42 billion) damage in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama

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