Louisville Metro Government officials say the city is poised to provide shelter to thousands of evacuees from the path of Hurricane Gustav along the Gulf Coast.Mayor Jerry Abramson says the first evacuees could arrive as early as Saturday."There may very well be airplanes flying in to the Air National Guard facility with citizens from the New Orleans area to take residence with us for five to seven days," Abramson said Friday.Abramson says the evacuees would be housed in a Red Cross shelter set up in the Kentucky Exposition Center's South Wing.He says the city is equipped to handle the arrival of up to five thousand evacuees. Two thousand of them would be transported to Lexington and other cities.Hurricane Gustav is expected to make landfall on the Gulf Coast Tuesday, with the potential to be a Category Five storm.
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.