New Orleans Mayor: Please Don't Come Home Yet

By ROBERT TANNER and VICKI SMITH
Associated Press Writers
NEW ORLEANS
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Anxious evacuees scattered across the country clamored to come home Tuesday after their city was largely spared by Hurricane Gustav, but Mayor Ray Nagin warned they may have to wait in shelters and motels a few days longer.

The city's improved levee system helped avert a disaster like Hurricane Katrina, which flooded most of the city, and officials got an assist from a disorganized and weakened Gustav, which came ashore about 72 miles southwest of the city Monday morning. Eight deaths were attributed to the storm in the U.S. after it killed at least 94 people across the Caribbean.

But New Orleans was still a city that took a glancing blow from a hurricane: A mandatory evacuation order and curfew remained in effect. Electric crews started work on restoring power to the nearly 80,000 homes in New Orleans _ and more than 1 million in the region _ that remained without power after the storm damaged transmission lines that snapped like rubber bands in the wind and knocked 35 substations out of service.

"We have a massive caravan of crews coming to the city and they should be here this morning to fix the rest of the power outages," Nagin said on CBS "Early Show."

The city's sewer system was damaged, and hospitals were working with skeleton crews on backup power. Drinking water continued to flow in the city and the pumps that keep it dry never shut down _ two critical service failings that contributed to Katrina's toll. The FAA said the city's airport was expected to reopen at 7 p.m.

Gustav was downgraded to a tropical depression early Tuesday, and mandatory evacuation orders were lifted for three Southeast Texas counties.