Here is the latest that I have found:
NEW ORLEANS - Low-lying Louisiana parishes called for evacuations Saturday and Mississippi declared an emergency as Hurricane Katrina appeared to be taking aim at the region while gathering strength over the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico.
"This is not a test," New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin said at a news conference. He said he would probably ask people to leave at daybreak Sunday, and said the Superdome could be pressed into use as a shelter of last resort for people who do not have cars.
Louisiana and Mississippi were making all lanes northbound on Interstates 55 and 59 beginning Saturday afternoon for evacuees.
Katrina threatened to strike land again as early as Monday after ripping across southern Florida and killing seven people.
The National Hurricane Center posted a hurricane watch for the eastern half of the Louisiana coast, including New Orleans. The watch was likely to be extended to other areas, which could extend from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.
Katrina was a Category 3 storm with 115 mph sustained wind Saturday, but the hurricane center said it was likely to get stronger over the Gulf, where the surface water temperature was as high as 90 degrees.
"Right now, it looks like Louisiana is in line for a possible direct hit," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. "It does not bode well for southeastern Louisiana."
Mandatory or voluntary evacuations were called on Grand Isle, Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island, and in the parishes of St. Charles, Lafourche, Terrebonne, Plaquemines and St. Bernard.
"You know, at this juncture, all we can do is pray it doesn't come this way and tear us up," said Jeannette Ruboyianes (Roo-buh-YAH-nees), owner of the Day Dream Inn at Grand Isle.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency and the director of his Emergency Management Agency, Robert Latham, urged coastal residents to not wait for evacuation orders.
"I realize that we have done this drill two or three times in the past few months, but we cannot take this storm lightly," Latham said.
A Holiday Inn Express in Jackson, Miss., was booked up, said manager Jeff Rogers. "Most of the people that we have are coming from Florida, the Alabama Gulf Coast, Mississippi Gulf Coast and southern Louisiana," Rogers said.
The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency urged people to heed evacuation orders.
"I'm very concerned about people in Mississippi and Louisiana who have watched these storms the past two years hit Florida and Alabama and may have a little lackadaisical attitude toward this thing," FEMA director Michael Brown told AP Radio.
About 300,000 residents of low-lying areas of the Florida Panhandle east of Pensacola also were under voluntary evacuation orders. The military planned to move aircraft and personnel out of some Panhandle bases Saturday.
By 11 a.m. Saturday, the eye of the hurricane was located about 200 miles west of Key West or about 405 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. It was moving west at nearly 7 mph and was expected to gradually turn toward the west-northwest, the hurricane center said.
Hurricane-force wind extended up to 40 miles out from the center, the center said.
... and I haven't slept at a Holiday Inn, but this is information I just heard). Best of luck to you ... have a great time!
