As rain started to fall on this city’s empty streets Sunday night nearly 2 million people from the Louisiana coast evacuated. The Port of New Orleans shut down as the Coast Guard closed the lower Mississippi River. The French Quarter was emptied of visitors as most hotels closed. Coastal casinos, a dozen of which were destroyed three years ago by Hurricane Katrina, closed their doors.

"After a certain point, though, Mother Nature’s going to have her say," said spokesman Mark Crowley of Crowley Maritime Corp., which operates container ships, tugs and barges in the Gulf Coast region. Shipping companies have been making preparations for the last several days, diverting cargo and sending ships away from the storm’s path while also evacuating equipment from the Gulf Coast.

The New Orleans port sustained $260 million in damage from Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005, but was able to take its first ship a week later. On Sunday, the port had locked down cranes and secured all floating equipment. Several vessels were remaining until the storm passed. The last vessel departed Saturday night, well before the Coast Guard closed the lower Mississippi River on Sunday. Gustav’s projected storm surge stood to cut through the heart of Louisiana‘s sugar industry in southern Louisiana, which includes 600 growers, 11 processing mills and an estimated $500 million annual crop value, according to the American Sugar Cane League. The storm came on top of such problems as high fuel and fertilizer prices, sagging prices caused by imported sugar and a rainy summer that has delayed crops. Many growers have supplemented their sugar crops by growing soybeans, which also stand to get flooded, said the group’s general manager, Jim Simon.

Simon said the sugar business in Louisiana, in a good year, can carry a total economic impact of up to $2 billion. "When we take a hit like this, it not only affects the growers, but it can trickle through the entire sugar economy," Simon said.

The manufacturer of Tabasco – Avery Island, La.-based McIlhenny Co. – indicated that hot sauce lovers wouldn’t be cut off for long, if at all. Since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita disrupted its operations in 2005, McIlhenny has built a flood-control levee and installed a pumping system around its complex that it believes can withstand a major storm. But not everyone is as confident. For the New Orleans tourism industry, the question is how long luck can last. Before Katrina, tourism was the city’s chief economic driver, pushing $9.6 billion annually into the economy, with about $6 billion coming from conventions.

In what some called a miracle, the French Quarter and the city’s giant convention center were spared post-Katrina flooding. Since then, the city has resumed its host role to Mardi Gras and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and, just this year, entertained the national college football championship game and the NBA All-Star Game.

A recent study by the University of New Orleans said the New Orleans metropolitan area’s tourism industry showed signs of recovery in 2007, with 7.1 million visitors compared with 3.7 million in 2006. The Gulf Coast casino industry, which was torn apart by Katrina and Rita in 2005, braced itself for another storm. By Sunday, Harrah’s and Isle of Capri casinos Inc. were among those closing casino doors in Lake Charles, New Orleans and along the Mississippi Coast.

The 12 casinos operating along the Mississippi coast a few years ago were wiped out by Katrina’s winds and storm surge on Aug. 29, 2005. At the time, state law required the gambling portion of the resorts to be located on barges in the water. In a special session called quickly after the storm, the Mississippi Legislature decided to let coastal casinos build onshore. Eleven have since rebuilt, much faster than their surrounding communities. So far, casino companies have spent more than $1.7 billion rebuilding along the coast, according to the Gulf Coast Business Council, a corporate executives group.

In 2007, gamblers left behind $2.9 billion in Mississippi casinos, including $1.3 billion along the coast. The take translated into $332.3 million in tax revenue for state and local governments.

The Louisiana Chemical Association said Sunday that most of the 40 to 50 chemical plants in hurricane-vulnerable areas had shut down before the storm’s arrival. Edward Flynn, the trade association’s safety-security director, said 20 to 25 percent of domestic chemicals are manufactured in Louisiana.