Soldiers controlled crowds hoping to pass the night in the Superdome as thousands fled the city known as "The Big Easy" by car, causing monster traffic jams.

Forecasters expect Hurricane Katrina, a maximum-strength, category-five storm churning northward in the Gulf of Mexico, to lay siege to this city of 1.4 million people with lethal winds of 280 kilometers (176 miles) per hour within the next 24 hours.

Police directed heavy traffic out of New Orleans as winds picked up, causing trees along the roadways to sway ahead of the storm, ranked in the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale by the National Hurricane Center.

More than 1,000 people, including families with children and apparent indigents with no place else to go, lined up over four city blocks at the gigantic Superdome, which holds the world's record for attendance at an indoor rock concert, for the Rolling Stones in 1981, with a crowd of 87,500.

The shelter seekers lugged sleeping bags and coolers and carried their possessions in plastic trash bags.

Warnings were broadcast continuously on local radio stations as police officers with loudspeakers drove through residential neighborhoods urging people to adhere to the mandatory evacuation order.

Hotels and buildings in the historic downtown French quarter were boarded up and largely deserted. Sandbags were stacked outside doorways of some buildings to prevent floodwaters from entering. Windows were boarded up or criss-crossed with duct tape.

Several hotels in the quarter were quickly filling with local residents, hotel employees, their families and emergency workers.

"Hey, honey are you moving in here?" a receptionist asked a woman who arrived at the Best Western's lobby laden with clothes, a computer and a cooler.

Ashley Thomas, a 20-year-old student at Xavier University here, was among those checking in.

"I can't leave, I don't have a dependable car," she said.

Thomas was staying at the Best Western with her mother, cousin and three brothers fearing the worst. They sought refuge in the hotel from their home because it is located on higher ground.

Much of New Orleans is below sea level.

"It's higher up," Thomas explained, adding "we went to the grocery store, got water, batteries, flashlights, food and food that you don't have to cook."

She said the family also did not want to flee the coastal city as an aunt is in hospital and is not being evacuated.

The mayor of Kenner, a western suburb, warned that the city's water would be turned off Sunday evening and it would take at least three days to get it online again.

Kenner Mayor Philip Capitano pleaded with residents to flee, warning that the storm swell from Lake Pontchartrain would flood the entire city, including the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

"If you're staying make sure you have a way to escape out of your attic or roof. This is clearly a killer storm. If the wind doesn't get you the water will," Capitano warned.

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