Gusty winds and heavy rain squalls swept across southern Louisiana yesterday as giant Hurricane Katrina bore down on the US Gulf coast and threatened to swamp the city of New Orleans. At least a million people had fled the area ahead of the powerful storm, which weakened as it neared land to top winds of 155 mph (248 kph) and was downgraded to a Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

As of 3 a.m. EDT, the center of the storm was 130 miles south-southeast of New Orleans, the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported. It said gusts as high as 120 kph had been recorded at Grand Isle on the Louisiana coast. In New Orleans, gusts had reached 96 kph.

Weather experts issued dire predictions for the fate of New Orleans, saying that thousands of homes could be damaged or destroyed and a million people left homeless by a storm surge forecast to be as high as 28 feet above normal.

As Katrina plowed through the Gulf of Mexico, oil companies shut down production from many of the offshore platforms that provide a quarter of US oil and gas production. At least 42 percent of daily Gulf oil production, 20 percent of daily Gulf natural gas output and 8.5 percent of national refining capacity was shut on Sunday, producers and refiners said.

US oil futures jumped nearly $5 a barrel in opening trade to touch a peak of $70.80. Gasoline soared by 12 percent to a record high of $2.16 a gallon. Even into yesterday morning, Louisiana highways were thick with traffic as evacuees sought safety as far away as Texas, 265 miles to the west.

“Please Pray for New Orleans” read a giant handpainted sign, appearing to sum up the fears that had seized the city known as the Big Easy for its relaxed life and party atmosphere. New Orleans is nearly surrounded by water, including Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi, and about 70 percent of it lies below sea level, protected only by a series of levees.

Mayor Ray Nagin, who ordered a mandatory evacuation, warned the predicted storm surge could push water over the levees and flood the city, including its historic French Quarter. That, said Cray Bruce as he fled in his car toward Texas, was what convinced him to leave. “The only thing I was worried about was the water. We don’t worry about no wind,” said Bruce as he stopped for gas in Crowley, Louisiana. 160 miles west of New-Orleans.

<B>As Katrina plowed through the Gulf of Mexico, oil companies shut down production from many of the offshore platforms that provide a quarter of US oil.</B>

In Baton Rouge, officials said three people from a New Orleans nursing home had died during their evacuation to a Baton Rouge church. They said they were among nearly two dozen people from the home who were on a bus stuck in traffic for hours during the 80 mile trip.

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said 26,000 people had taken shelter in the Superdome, the giant, enclosed stadium near the French Quarter. The Louisiana National Guard brought in 10 truckloads of food and water for them.

Streets in New Orleans were mostly abandoned as the storm approached and even on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, bars that usually never close were shut down. News reports said sporadic looting had broken out in one New Orleans neighborhood, but police were on the scene.

New Orleans has not been hit directly by a hurricane since 1965 when Hurricane Betsy blew in, flooding the city and killing about 75 people in the United States. Mississippi and Alabama also braced for impact as the wide hurricane was forecast to push a 20-foot (6-meter) surge of seawater into the tourist community of Gulfport, Mississippi.

<B>Rick WILKING</B>