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GUSTAV Cuba at category-four strength, leaving the Caribbean nation stunned. Cuban officials reported gusts over 210 mph, with hundreds of thousands of homes uninhabitable and much of the island without power. With only a few days, and the warm, hurricane-feeding waters of the Gulf between Gustav and Louisiana, mandatory evacuations began in earnest. Hundreds of miles of highway were choked with evacuees. Long lines formed at evacuation centers for those boarding buses, trains and planes out of town. Responders hunkered down to ride out the storm. Coast Guardsmen had already sent their families out of harm’s way, and were sleeping on cots, filling up on Meals Ready to Eat and waiting. “Everybody was pretty quiet. People were talking but we were mostly waiting, watching the news,” said Bostwick who was with the boat crews from her station waiting out the storm in a giant NASA warehouse. The waiting ended early Sept. 1 when Gustav came ashore as a strong category-2 hurricane. Once the winds yielded enough for boats to be towed in safely, the boat crews rushed back to the city to begin conducting urban search and rescue, but crews in New Orleans found that the levees had held the storm surge back and damage to the city was not nearly as bad as many had feared. “We were relieved to come back and find minimal flooding,” said CWO David Mulford, commanding officer of Station New Orleans. “No one was in need of search and rescue after the storm.” To the south Station Grand Isle took a direct hit and the picture there was quite different. At first the crew was unable to return for several days because of flooding and damaged roads. Once they were able to get through they found their station in shambles. It was filled with mud, crabs, mosquitoes, water and glass. The crew’s families took it in stride when they were evacuated for more than a month because of the squalor at the station and adjacent housing. “We did what Coast Guard members always do, we started fixing stuff and cleaning up,’ said Lt. James Bendle, commanding officer of Station Grand Isle. One station was worse off still. Prior to Gustav, a new, permanent building was under construction at Station Gulfport, Miss., and the crew was using portable buildings in the interim. Gustav completely destroyed these temporary trailers. With no station to clean up, the crew had no choice but to move operations to another temporary location. “It’s tough. We’re working in a tight situation but we’re still operational,” said BM2 Patrick Hedden, a coxswain at the station, who remains positive in spite of the situation. “At least we only lost temporary buildings. Now it’s just a temporary temporary.” In the end, the 8th District team was able to quickly return to mostly normal operations and reestablish waterways so commerce could flow again into New Orleans and up the Mississippi River. Although Gustav largely spared the Gulf Coast, more trouble was on the horizon. Houston, Galveston Take Cover By PA1 Alan Haraf, 11th Dist. While Gustav was still dropping rain on Northern Louisiana, Hurricane Ike signaled its power as it strengthened from a tropical depression to a hurricane in less than 48 hours. By Sept. 5, Ike was peaking at category-four with sustained winds of 145 mph. In the coming week, meteorologists were once again predicting a major hurricane for the Gulf Coast. Early in the week, Ike was pointed directly at Louisiana again where everyone held their breath. By the weekend that had changed and it looked as if Mother Nature had picked a new target—Texas. Sector Houston-Galveston began Eyes Up McQuate scans for signs of pollution during an assessment patrol. Photo by PA3 Etta Smith, 1st Dist. First Look An HH-60J Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C. flys over flooded areas in New Iberia, La., Sept. 14, 2008. Coast Guard photo 30 Coast Guard — Issue 2, 2008 31 uscg.mil/mag