Unlike most of his neighbors, New Orleans resident Larry Denny isn't worried enough about Hurricane Gustav to leave.  Jeffrey Vannor carries his belongings while evacuating from the approaching Hurricane Gustav at the Greyhound Bus and Amtrak station in New Orleans, on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008. A million people took to Gulf Coast highways Saturday, boarding up homes and businesses and fleeing dangerous Hurricane Gustav by bus and automobile as the season's most powerful Atlantic storm took aim at Louisiana.
Never mind that his house flooded during Hurricane Katrina, the stress cracks in his roof have yet to be fixed and he and his wife felt it was necessary to get two guard dogs and an armory of weapons to ward off looters that roamed their street back in 2005.
Denny says that there is "no way" he and his wife Charlotte will evacuate New Orleans.
"Why do we stay?" asked Denny, who was raised in Louisiana and returned to New Orleans 15 years ago to settle in Orleans Parish, just north of the French Quarter. "Because we know the government won't protect our house, so we have to."
As of early Sunday morning, the National Hurricane Center reported that Gustav had weakened slightly overnight from a Category 4 hurricane to a Category 3, and had sustained wins of 120 mph. The hurricane is predicted to regain strength as it moves north Sunday.
"I won't be coming back to a shell," said Denny, who added that just like he rode out Katrina he'll do it again for Gustav, which is predicted to make landfall on the northern Gulf Coast on Monday at its current clip of 16 mph.  to the people of these heavy hurricanes! God_bless you all. |