Waves overtopped New Orleans' industrial canal in the Upper 9th Ward on Monday, as Hurricane Gustav Gustav crashed into the Louisiana coast.

Full Coverage: LIVE: Gustav In La. | Track Gustav Some Areas Fear More Than 20 Inches Of Rain Storm Knocks Out Power To Thousands of People 2 Million Evacuated

The storm's eye landed southwest of vulnerable New Orleans, near Cocodrie, La.

At 10 a.m., the storm's center was about 70 miles southwest of New Orleans. The Category 2 storm was moving near 15 mph, with maximum sustained winds near 110 mph.

As of 9:40 a.m., industrial canal levees remained unbroken. Meanwhile, city officials reported two ships broken loose from their moorings and careening down the same industrial canal. The Lower 9th Ward was destroyed by flooding three years ago when a levee along the same canal broke during Hurricane Katrina, WDSU-TV in New Orleans reported.

Gustav brought punishing wind and sheets of rain the area.

Gusts snapped large branches from the majestic oak trees that form a canopy over St. Charles Avenue, and tens of thousands were without power in New Orleans and other low-lying parishes, but officials said backup generators were keeping city drainage pumps in service.

FEMA Expects Levees To Hold

Federal emergency officials said they expect New Orleans' levees to hold up to Hurricane Gustav, but that doesn't mean there won't be flooding.

The commander of the Army Corps of Engineers' hurricane protection system said there are some "overtopping waves" splashing over the levees. But he said he's "cautiously optimistic and confident" that there won't be a "catastrophic wall failure."

FEMA's deputy director, Harvey Johnson, said the storm's surge could at least partially flood the city. He said the agency expects "a lot of homes to be damaged."

Johnson said because so many people evacuated this time, Gustav shouldn't bring as many deaths as Hurricane Katrina. Still, he told The Associated Press that Gustav "will be a catastrophe by the time you add it all up."

Johnson said about 2 million people have been evacuated from Louisiana, but as many as 10,000 remain in the New Orleans area.

Katrina was a Category 3 storm when it hit the Gulf Coast three years ago. Gustav was downgraded to a Category 2 storm Monday morning as it neared the coast.

FEMA said it's ready to distribute cartons of food, water, blankets and other supplies to sustain 1 million people for three days.

Forecasters said Gustav was expected to weaken after it moved inland later Monday.

Officials in New Orleans were watching Gustav's storm surge closely. While the levee system in the city has been shored up since Katrina, there's concern about the city's west bank, where repairs have not been completed yet. A surge of 4 to 6 feet is forecast.

Stay Or Leave?

A hurricane warning remains in effect from near High Island, Texas, eastward to the Mississippi-Alabama border.

In Gulfport, Miss., waters were being pushed ashore and across U.S. 90, but so far no flooding of homes had been reported.

A Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman said thousands of customers are without power, but they don't even know it since "there's nobody there."

Tens of thousands of south Mississippi residents have fled north, and the ones who stayed behind hunkered down and hoped for the best.

In Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans, officials said they know of only a dozen people refusing to evacuate. A sheriff's spokesman said it's not people in their 20s feeling invincible either. He said some older people who have survived previous hurricanes also are sticking around.

But he said Gustav "is a little more dangerous."

Making the rounds on the morning news shows, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said lessons from Hurricane Katrina three years ago have been learned and can be summed up as: "Planning, preparation and moving early."

Chertoff said President George W. Bush is "very focused" on Gustav and the federal response to it.

Bush was on his way to Texas on Monday to monitor the federal response to Gustav. He hopes to get to Louisiana later, when he won't disrupt emergency response efforts. Bush canceled plans to address the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

Nation's Aid Workers On Call In Storm's Path

The American Red Cross is leading the way in order to make sure those affected by the storm receive the proper support.

"First hearing about Gustav, we're just talking about chills up your spine," said Robin Dorf, community relations specialist for the Northwest Arkansas chapter of the Red Cross.

He told Fort Smith TV station KHBS-TV that dealing with dangerous weather is something the organization doesn't particularly like to do, but the Red Cross is ready nonetheless.

The Northwest Arkansas chapter of the Red Cross has already deployed about a dozen trained volunteers to Louisiana to assist with shelters and the possible recovery in that area. The organization said those workers are prepared to meet the needs of the thousands of evacuees.

"It's the same type of work that we would do here at our shelters with the evacuees, except it's going to be much more intense. They're going to be down where the power is going to be fluctuating, where the air conditioners may or may not be working, where there's flooding going on," Dorf said.

The Cincinnati Area Chapter of the American Red Cross also issued a call for volunteers ahead of Gustav making landfall.

Directors told WLWT-TV in Cincinnati that they anticipate the need for more than 3,000 volunteers for their relief efforts.

"Now that mandatory evacuation is in place, there is an urgent need for volunteer assistance at Red Cross shelters set up throughout the South," disaster staffing specialist Kevin Quatman said.

The Red Cross will train volunteers in mass care and shelter operations.

Even volunteers from as far as Vermont are ready to help with the possibly disastrous aftermath of Gustav.

"It's very possible that we'll be asked to supply some National Guard volunteers once again this year," said Vermont Gov. Jim Douglass. "The Pentagon has been in touch with us, and we've made preliminary plans to ask for volunteers to go to the Gulf Coast."

A total of 120 Army National Guard soldiers and 30 Air National Guard Airmen have volunteered.

Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, an Air Force reservist, told WPTZ-TV in Plattsburgh, N.Y., he was there for cleanup after Hurricane Katrina.

"It's really satisfying, it's challenging," said Dubie. "There's a lot of confusion of trying to coordinate communications, but there's been a lot of lessons learned about how to do things better than last time."

He heads to the Republican National Convention Monday morning, but like many others, he said he'll be ready to go to the Gulf if needed.

"I'm going to take my bags with me," Dubie said. "I'm going to be ready for the phone call that says we need you."

Tropical Storm Hanna Crawls In Open Water

Tropical Storm Hanna remained nearly stationary north of the Caicos Islands on Monday.

At 8 a.m., the center of Tropical Storm Hanna was located about 90 miles north-northeast of the southeastern Bahamas. Hanna was drifting slowly westward near 2 mph, and a continued slow forward motion between west and west-southwest is expected during the next day, although Hanna could become stationary at times.

On the forecast track, the center of Hanna will move near or over the southeastern Bahamas during the next day or so.

Maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph, with higher gusts. Some fluctuations in strength are possible during the next 24 hours. Rainfall amounts of 4 to 8 inches are possible through Thursday over the central and southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.