The wave of storms battering the U.S. has plunged the American Red Cross deep into debt as it rushes to prepare for Hurricane Ike, prompting a searching look at how to stabilize its finances.

Republicans opened their storm-shortened national convention on Monday amid distractions involving running mate Sarah Palin. Police made more than 280 arrests in the surrounding streets as anti-war protests turned violent.

A weaker-than-expected Hurricane Gustav swirled into the fishing villages and oil-and-gas towns of Lousiana’s Cajun country Monday, delivering only a glancing blow to New Orleans that did little more than send water sloshing harmlessly over its rebuilt floodwalls.

For a time, the traffic on Interstate 10 was bumper to bumper through Jackson County as residents of Louisiana and Mississippi sought refuge from Hurricane Gustav.

President Bush, trying to prove his administration has learned the haunting lessons of Katrina, flew to Texas for briefings on Hurricane Gustav, which hit land on Monday, battering the Gulf Coast with flood waters and more than 100 mph winds.

A weakened Hurricane Gustav slammed into the heart of Louisiana’s fishing and oil industry with 110 mph winds Monday, delivering only a glancing blow to New Orleans that raised hopes the city would escape the kind of catastrophic flooding brought by Katrina three years ago.

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Gustav steamed toward the Louisiana coast early Monday on track to hit west of New Orleans as the few remaining in the city watched nervously and hoped levees only partly reinforced in the three years since Katrina would hold.

PERDIDO KEY, Fla. - A man with a bra draped over his head danced into the night as waves churned up by Hurricane Gustav lashed the beach just yards away.

Evacuees from Mississippi and Louisiana were flowing steadily over the border into the Florida Panhandle, where hotels and rest stops were filling quickly Sunday. Florida opened six shelters for out-of-state evacuees Sunday.

24-hour coverage from WKRG in Mobile, Ala.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin instituted a dusk-to-dawn curfew to take effect at sunset. Gustav has already killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean. It picked up speed upon reaching the gulf, moving northwest at 17 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 11 a.m. EDT update.

Hurricane Gustav roared into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico on Sunday after destroying homes and roads in Cuba, and the mayor of New Orleans ordered residents to flee the “storm of the century” by morning.

Tropical storm warning in effect for Florida panhandle.

Residents were ordered to flee an only partially rebuilt New Orleans Sunday. Hurricane Gustav, which already killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean, strengthened quickly into a Category 4 and was poised to become a Category 5 storm.

At 9:38 a.m. on Friday, about 200 mourners rang handbells to mark the moment three years ago when New Orleans’ levees were breached by high waters from Hurricane Katrina, flooding most of the city and leading to the deaths of about 1,600 people.