Gustav heading toward empty towns

By CNN Senior Correspondent Allan Chernoff

LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana (CNN) - Hurricane Gustav may strike Louisiana with fury, but around Lake Charles, 200 miles west of New Orleans, few residents will be around to witness the storm.

Memories of Hurricane Rita, which hit this region head on three years ago, are turning Calcasieu Parish - population 195,000 - into a series of ghost towns.

Hospital patients have been airlifted out of state. Twelve-hundred prisoners were bused north this weekend. One, chained and shackled, jumped out of a bus traveling 45 mph.