New Orleans hunkers down for storm

UNITED STATES: The US Gulf Coast braced for Hurricane Nate to make landfall east of New Orleans as a Category 2 storm yesterday, threatening parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with torrential rain, flooding and winds of 160 kilometres per hour.

Nate, the fourth major storm to strike the United States in less than two months, killed at least 30 people in Central America before entering the warm waters of the Gulf and bearing down on the US South.

Low-lying southeastern Louisiana, just south of the city, was the likely target, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

‘‘We’re in the fight now. The storm is on us,’’ New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said yesterday, adding that conditions were expected to rapidly deteriorate.

The NHC issued a hurricane warning from Grand Isle, Louisiana to the Alabama-Florida border. A state of emergency was declared for more than two dozen Florida counties and for the states of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.

New Orleans, about 97 km north of Grand Isle, evacuated some residents from areas outside its levee system as the storm approached. The winds could cause significant power outages in the city, Landrieu said.

Landrieu urged residents and an estimated 40,000 visitors to shelter in place overnight, when the worst conditions are expected.

‘‘We have been through this many, many times. There is no need to panic,’’ Landrieu told reporters, alluding in part to Hurricane Katrina, which triggered severe flooding in New Orleans and killed hundreds of people in August 2005.

But residents of the city known as the ‘‘Big Easy’’ were taking Nate in stride. At a hardware store in the St Roch area of New Orleans, there were short lines around noon and plentiful supplies of pro- pane, generators and plywood. ’’They don’t start boarding up until it’s a Category 3,’’ said employee Paula Clemons. ‘‘We’re used to floods. Comes with the territory.’’

That said, for some residents of New Orleans, memories of Katrina and Hurricane Betsy in 1965 were still vivid.

‘‘I’ve been through Betsy and Katrina. Ain’t no way they’re going to stop this water,’’ said Antoine Turner, 55, as he heaved sandbags into his truck, hoping to protect a building where he was preparing to open a soul food restaurant. ‘‘Best thing to do is just pray.’’ - Reuters

Body parts found

Danish divers found the decapitated head, legs and clothes of a Swedish journalist who was killed after going on a trip with an inventor on his submarine, police said yesterday. The body parts and clothing were found in plastic bags with a knife and

‘‘heavy metal pieces’’ to make them sink near where 30-year-old Kim Wall’s naked, headless torso was found in August, Copenhagen police investigator Jens Moeller Jensen said. Moeller Jensen said there were no fractures to Wall’s skull. Peter

Madsen, the 46-year-old Danish inventor who is in pre-trial detention on preliminary manslaughter charges, has said Wall died after being accidentally hit by a 70 kilogram hatch on the UC3 Nautilus submarine, after which he ‘‘buried’’ her at sea. But police have said 15 stab wounds were on the torso found at sea off Copenhagen on August 21. Her arms are still missing.

Tanker explodes

A tanker explosion at a gas-filling station in Ghana yesterday, followed by a secondary blast, has left a number of casualties in the Legon suburb in northwest Accra, authorities said. Ghana’s deputy information minister Kojo OppongNkrumah said it was too early to give any figures on the number injured or dead, he said, adding there were casualties.

Pedestrians injured in London

Eleven people were injured yesterday when a car collided with pedestrians near London’s Natural History Museum, in one of the capital’s busiest tourist areas, but police said it was not a terrorist attack, but a road traffic incident. Police said it was believed the car had mounted the pavement outside the popular attraction in west London, injuring several pedestrians. Officers had arrested a man aged in his 40s at the scene and he was now being questioned on suspicion of dangerous driving after being taken to hospital for treatment. Britain has suffered five attacks blamed on terrorism so far this year. London’s ambulance service said they had treated 11 people, mostly for head and leg injuries, with nine taken to hospital, none seriously.