| August 31, 2008 New Orleans residents leaving ahead of Gustav
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(NECN/ABC) - Boarding the buses with their suitcases, children, and pet carriers, many of New Orleans residents don't even know where they are going.
"I'm not afraid but you don't know where you're going..You don't know where you're going."
They're leaving after the city's mayor warned that Hurricane Gustav is poised to be the mother of all storms.
"You need to be scared. You need to be concerned. And you need to get your butts moving out of new orleans - right now. This is the storm of the century."
Most of the city both homes and businesses, is now boarded up; hospitals remain open, with the most fragile of patients already evacuated. The mayor says the city will provide no shelter, no services to any residents who try to ride it out.
Leaving Washington for Baton Rouge, Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff says the federal government will assist in any way possible.
"I spoke to the president this morning on the state of preps and is committed to throwing all the assets of fed govt into this fight"
There are, of course, those who will refuse to leave and for many of them are stocking up on supplies of a different kind.
Gun and ammunition stores have been doing a crackerjack business, with buyers like Samuel Krush, who says he's never owned a gun before.
"There is the possibility of vandalism or even stronger danger than that. // so on the advice of my wife, I'm making this purchase."
ABC News reporter
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