Hurricane on Katrina anniversary

On the same day that New Orleans residents marked the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's wrath, another storm strengthened into a hurricane miles away and threatened to hit the US Gulf Coast once again.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Centre said that Gustav had grown into a Category 1 hurricane, and remained on track to strike anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to eastern Texas sometime next week.

The news came only hours after New Orleans lay to rest the last seven unclaimed Katrina victims.

A horse-drawn carriage brought the bodies for entombment at a memorial site, and the mayor helped guide a gleaming coffin into a mausoleum.

Gustav has been blamed for 71 deaths on its path through Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

Along the Gulf Coast, officials were preparing for the possibility of major evacuations should the storm stay on track.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour had already called for the evacuation of Katrina-scarred residents still living in trailers and other temporary housing along the state's 70-mile coastline.
The mayor of Grand Isle, Louisiana, also called for voluntary evacuations.

In New Orleans, the Katrina anniversary ceremonies were tinged with an awareness of how far the city has come since Katrina, but also a trepidation about the possibility of another storm.
New forecasts made it clear that the city will get some kind of hit by early next week.



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