Memorable Quotes 2 Days Before Gustav Hits Louisiana

“I am strongly, strongly encouraging everyone in the city to evacuate,” New Orleans mayor Nagin said. “Start the process now. Go north if you can because the storm may continue to turn a little bit west.”

"If it's like Katrina, they might not let us back," says N.O. resident Beth Basile, 52, a Wal-Mart cashier. "They might put a fence around the whole parish and say, `Go away.'"

"I'm trying to be optimistic," said Gary Sass, 46, a construction worker. "But Kentucky's looking better and better."

"We've got floors — beautiful brand-new floors," said Maria DiMaggio, who is 42, disabled and sleeps in a cot in her kitchen. "I mean, my house is not even finished and, then, what? It's going to float away again?"
"I was hoping to get all the way right at least before another hurricane came and ate up my world," said DiMaggio, who lost $22,000 to unscrupulous contractors. "If I would have been in my house for a day it would have been OK. Then I could have dealt with it. ... But I can't do this again."

“I don’t want to be stuck like I was in Katrina,” said N.O. resident Janice McElveen, recalling being stranded on the Interstate 10 bridge for five days in 2005.


Declared a Category 4 storm Saturday afternoon, Hurricane Gustav continues to strengthen and will soon reach Category 5 status—the highest—according to U.S. officials. - National Weather Service


“After going through Katrina, that ain’t no joke,” said Jody Anderson, who spent seven days in the Superdome. “It’s not worth it, trying to stay.”


“We can save everybody this time,” Jackie Clarkson, the president of the City Council, said.

Brad Pitt tells New Orleans: “We’re going to start with 150 homes”

“We’re going to start with 150 homes,” he told the media as the movie star strolled through the razed neighborhood, which is decorated with the forms of building components — roofs, walls, foundations — draped in dark pink canvas to attract attention to his cause.
Like the project he announced in August of this year in partnership with Global Green, an environmental organization specializing in eco-friendly construction, Make It Right aims to provide affordable housing in the Lower 9th Ward that will make maximum use of solar and wind energy to reduce utility costs by as much as 65 percent.
And Brad Pitt has pledged $5 million toward the reconstruction.
“This area where we’re standing right now, they lost over 5,000 [homes],” he said. “I’m hoping we can expand over to the rest of New Orleans. There’s no reason why we need to stop here. It’s just going to be if we can get the financial support to make up the difference people need to return to their homes.”
He’s asking for money to make it happen. “This is an adopt-a-house campaign,” he said. “I’m asking for foundations, for high net-worth individuals, for church groups, for corporations to come in to adopt a home. Basically, $150,000 will get a family back in their home.”
Pitt has long been fond of Nola, and is enjoying being a resident.
"For me, first as a tourist, it's the most unique city that we have in the States," Pitt, 43, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune in a phone interview from the Czech Republic.
"It has an energy like no other place. You guys shouldn't change a thing. I've got to get me some of it. I absolutely love it there. We moved our family there. We've got a place there and we're intermittently going back and forth. We're in Prague now because of work. We'll be back there soon."
Actor-activist Brad Pitt greenlighted a bold initiative this summer to start making things better in New Orleans’ flood-devastated Lower 9th Ward. Now, he’s expanding on that with a new foundation called “Make It Right,” pledging that the first of at least 150 environmentally friendly homes will be ready by next summer.

After his family, rebuilding New Orleans is his top priority, he told TODAY’s Ann Curry during a live interview Monday in the Lower 9th Ward. Curry asked if that means it comes ahead of making films.

“Sure, I guess so,” he said. “Right now, this is the focus, and we’re going to see this thing through.”