Emergency planners say a phased evacuation of South Louisiana may start Friday as they watch Gustav's track.
"I am very concerned about it," says Tab Troxler, Director of Emergency Preparedness in St. Charles Parish. He adds that an evacuation this time could be the largest ever.
"Katrina went pretty well with the evacuation... but there really were not that many parishes in South Louisiana actually calling for any kind of mandatory evacuation," Troxler told WWL First News. He says the best guess from the Hurricane Center as of 4am called for a landfall somewhere around Morgan City, Louisiana Tuesday or Wednesday, and that would mean clearing out a lot more people.
"That brings a lot of other parishes into play... that would have a need and most likely would have to call for an evacuation," Troxler says. He adds that when you look at evacuating everyone from Plaquemines, St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson, St. Charles, LaFourche, Terrebonne and further west; it would be unprecedented.
Listen to Troxler with WWL Dave Cohen Wednesday morning:
He says coastal and low lying areas could be evacuating in two days. "The Governor... said contraflow could being as early as Saturday or Sunday. You've got to understand for the parishes that are in the first phase... you've got to go out 20 hours ahead of that." He says, "That would be sometime in the afternoon on Friday."
Troxler cautions, "The Storm is way out there, a lot of error in the forecast track. But, if all things were to stay the same. For the low lying parishes, it could be as early as Friday."
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