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‘We packed everything up on Saturday and shut the house up tight,’ says Mathijs van Ledden, local project manager. ‘Then we left for Baton Rouge very late and it took four hours to cover a distance of fifty miles.’ Other colleagues had already fled to safety.

Since 2006 Royal Haskoning has been advising the US Army Corps of Engineers about the rebuilding of the levees in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The firm of consultants, engineers and architects are carrying out model calculations for waves and water levels and advising about the heights of the levees needed to protect the city against a storm with a chance of 1% per year in 2011.

Based on the latest weather forecasts on Sunday afternoon, Hurricane Gustav poses a serious threat to the areas around New Orleans. The hurricane will hit land as a Category 4 storm some time Monday afternoon. Hurricanes like that have wind speeds of around125 mph. ‘This hurricane is dangerous, particularly for the area to the southwest of New Orleans,’ says Maarten Kluyver, specialist in water levels and wave calculations. ‘If the weather forecast is right the combination of high wind speeds and the hurricane’s current predicted path could result in high water levels both to the east of the city as well as more westerly along the south coast of Louisiana.’

The situation to the east of the city was disastrous after Katrina in 2005. Levees were breached and the city was under water for three weeks. It is still extremely difficult to predict whether this will happen again. The computer models are indicating that the water levels to the east of the city will not reach Katrina levels. ‘But that’s right where the weak links are, and the water doesn’t have to get to Katrina levels to cause problems,’ says Mathijs van Ledden. ‘The planned flood barrier to the east ought to protect this area, but construction won’t be starting until the autumn of 2008. And the essential raising of the height of the levees will only start some time in 2009.’ Hurricane Gustav may also cause high water levels on the West Bank and along the south coast of Louisiana. Because this area only has a few low levees Royal Haskoning engineers think that there may be floods there.

‘At this moment the only thing that can be done is to get everyone away as quickly as possible,’ says Mathijs van Ledden. Fortunately the city is far better prepared than it was three years ago. On Saturday more than a thousand buses evacuated residents of the city to the north of Louisiana. Trains were also used to take people to safer areas. Sunday morning began with a compulsory evacuation of New Orleans. The last two Royal Haskoning employees and their families left New Orleans in the early hours of Sunday morning and will be anxiously following the situation elsewhere.