Keeping an eye on Gustav

With landfall of Hurricane Gustav at least six days away, now is the time residents in Vermilion Parish should be preparing for the storm.
Winds are 90 miles per hour and it is moving at 13 miles per hour. Hurricane force winds extend outward of 25 miles from the center.
Hurricane Gustav is predicted to have winds of 121 mile per hour when it enters the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday. Hurricane computers’ five-day forecast have Hurricane Gustav entering the Gulf of Mexico between the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba.
When it enters the Gulf of Mexico, it is also expected to intensify. Some are predicting the Louisiana coast is where it will make landfall.
Becky Broussard of the Office of Emergency Preparedness said people should be begin making plans in case an evacuation is ordered on Monday or Tuesday.
“People need to get a plan in order,” Broussard said. “They should get cash because credit cards and debit cards won’t work if there is no electricity. The need to figure out where they can evacuate if they have to.”
By Friday the parish could declare a state of emergency at the Clerk of Courts office. By doing that, it puts the parish in a state of emergency for 30 days.
She said residents should begin paying close attention to the news to see what Hurricane Gustav is doing.
“Once in the Gulf, it could go anywhere,” she said.
Vermilion Parish Sheriff Mike Couvillon also said people need to begin paying attention to the news. He said a meeting will take place with parish officials on Friday.
Vermilion Parish residents are no strangers to hurricanes. It has only been three years since the last hurricane hit the parish. Hurricane Rita made landfall in Cameron Parish and Vermilion Parish at the end of September in 2005.
Hurricane Rita’s storm surge flooded thousands of homes in the parish.
Broussard predicts if the hurricane continues on the path that computers project, by Tuesday the southern part of Vermilion Parish could begin evacuating.