But the floodwall itself is holding. “Army Corps of Engineers officials said the spillage does not pose a major threat.”

So far, no catastrophic damage and the authorities have, by all accounts, done an excellent job with the evacuation and contingency plans. Nagin absolutely did the right thing by ordering an evacuation. Cuba routinely does this during hurricanes, and their highly regarded hurricane contingency plans unquestionably have saved many lives.

Check The Oil Drum for constantly updated reports on damage to oil infrastructure. One major concern, the LOOP took a direct hit.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, or LOOP, and Port Fourchon, which has historically been a land base for offshore oil support services in the Gulf, was directly in the path of Gustav and is expected to be damaged. As you will see below, a good bit of oil and natural gas is also expected to be taken offline: some for weeks, some for much longer.

LOOP is the only facility in the Gulf to unload VLCC tankers which carry over 2 million barrels of crude.

Gusts could be up to 150 mph

The evacuation and logistics appear to be way better organized this time. Good. Let’s hope the levees hold and the LOOP isn’t badly damaged.

Mayor Nagin wants a 100% evacuation. He says, if you stay, you are completely on your own. Katrina had a footprint of 400 miles while Gustav is 900 miles and growing.

“You need to be scared and you need to get your butts out of New Orleans right now,” Nagin said.

He expects Gustav to “punch holes in the Harvey Canal,” which could cause the West Bank to become a bathtub.

Map. I believe that’s the Harvey Canal going SSE off the Mississippi at the word “Harvey”

Gustav is growing in power faster than anyone thought. Just yesterday it was predicted to be a Cat 3 when it reached the middle of the Gulf. Now it’s passing Cuba and they say it’ll be a Cat 5. Yikes.