By Eileen Fleming
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wwno/local-wwno-914647.mp3
New Orleans, La. – Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen says local leaders are helping to find safe places near shore where skimmers and boom can ride out forecast heavy winds and seas. He says he wants to avoid mistakes made ahead of Hurricane Katrina five years ago.
"I am still haunted by the specter of flying in over New Orleans on the 5th, 6th of September as a principle federal official, looking down in New Orleans to a parking lot full of buses that were flooded and not used for evacuation because they were not moved in time."
Allen says finding high ground in the low-lying areas of the Louisiana wetlands is a challenge he's leaving to regional officials. He says storm tracking indicates more oil could flush into the wetlands from the Gulf. The National Weather Service says the storm should make landfall Sunday somewhere along the northern Gulf Coast.
For NPR News, I'm Eileen Fleming in New Orleans.