New Orleans evacuates as new storm approaches

Tropical Storm Rita nears the Florida Coast. Picture / Getty Images

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has suspended a plan to bring residents back to New Orleans and told all those now in the stricken city to leave because of fears a new storm headed into the Gulf of Mexico could swamp damaged levees and wreak new havoc.

Tropical Storm Rita was moving west from the Atlantic Ocean and expected to enter the Gulf this week, where forecasters said it could grow into a major hurricane.

Current predictions point to a Texas landfall for Rita at week's end, but Nagin said there was a chance it could hit a New Orleans, still reeling from Hurricane Katrina three weeks ago.

"We are suspending all re-entry into the city of New Orleans," Nagin said.

"Our levee systems are still in a very weak condition, our pumping stations are still not at full capacity and any type of storm that heads this way and hits us will put the east bank of Orleans Parish in very significant harm's way, so I'm encouraging everyone to leave," Nagin said.

Nagin's new orders were a sharp reversal of his earlier plan to "repopulate" New Orleans by allowing residents of areas less affected by Katrina to return to the city starting on Monday.

Thousands of people streamed back into the relatively untouched west bank neighbourhood of Algiers, across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter, despite protests from President George W. Bush and his New Orleans relief director, Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, that it was too soon for their return.

They warned that returning now could be dangerous, due to a lack of electricity, drinkable water and emergency services in most of the city.

"The mayor is working hard. ... He's got this dream about having a city up and running, and we share that dream," Bush told reporters at the White House. "But we also want to be realistic about some of the hurdles and obstacles that we all confront in repopulating New Orleans."

The president has come under heavy criticism for a slow federal response to initial Katrina relief efforts.

Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi on August 29 with 224 km/h winds and 9m storm surge.

New Orleans collapsed into a chaos of death, violence and looting as Lake Pontchartrain swamped the city through breaks in the damaged levees that protect the low-lying city and rescue efforts floundered.

The Louisiana death toll rose to 736 as of Monday, bringing the total dead from Katrina to 973, including 218 in Mississippi and 19 combined in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.

- REUTERS