New Orleans residents to return

(03 September 2008)

Mayor Ray Nagin has said 200,000 residents who fled Hurricane Gustav can return to the city on Thursday.

The worst of the storm missed New Orleans but there are still some areas without power and the sewage system is damaged. Hospitals are also operating with skeleton crews.

An estimated 2 million people throughout Louisiana, the largest exodus in state history, fled the storm which made landfall on Monday.

Nagin said a dusk-to-dawn curfew would remain in effect for some time.