New Orleans: No Shelter if You Stay

Police with bullhorns plan to go street to street with a tough message about getting out ahead of Hurricane Gustav: This time there will be no shelter of last resort. New Orleans authorities issued a warning today as new forecasts made it increasingly clear that the city will get some kind of hit—direct or indirect—as early as Monday. Evacuations began today but the official order is expected tomorrow.

And those among New Orleans' 310,000 residents who ignore orders to leave accept "all responsibility for themselves and their loved ones," a city official said. In Mississippi, Gov. Haley Barbour has already called for the evacuation of residents along the Katrina-scarred coast. Elsewhere in Louisiana, residents of low-lying Grande Isle were under a voluntary evacuation order beginning today. (More New Orleans stories.)