Friday afternoon, Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet asked residents to evacuate as soon as possible. A mandatory evacuation takes effect in Terrebonne at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Parish Emergency Preparedness Director Jerry Richard urged residents to prepare.

“I don’t want to have people start panicking,” he said, though he added that people should prepare and heed local officials’ instructions.

“This is serious,” Richard said. “This needs your action. This needs your concentration.”

Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center, the state charity hospital in Houma, began evacuating patients today, some to E.A. Conway Medical Center in Moroe and others to Huey P. Long Medical Center in Alexandria. Mental-health patients were taken to Central State hospital in Alexandria.

The Houma hospital and its emergency room will be closed after 2 p.m. Saturday, when the evacuation is expected to be complete.

Claudet declared a state of emergency for Terrebonne Parish Thursday night, a necessary procedure to put the state on notice and the formal precursor to mandating an evacuation.

“We want you to realize. … Terrebonne will be as prepared as we possibly can be,” Claudet said Thursday afternoon during a media briefing. “Don’t panic.”

Gustav's top winds increased to near 80 mph by 7 tonight, the National Hurricane Center said. The Category 1 hurricane was centered 90 miles east of Grand Cayman, moving northwest near 11 mph and was projected to enter the Gulf of Mexico early Sunday morning.

What has drawn the attention of locals, however, is the storm’s projected path on the National Hurricane Center’s five-day forecast.

At 8 this morning, a black line charted a course from the storm’s location – at the western edge of Jamaica – across some 1,200 miles of water straight to Terrebonne Parish. That track was about the same at 7 p.m., sending the storm slamming into the Morgan City area Monday night or early Tuesday morning.

However, local and state officials, as well as meteorologists with the National Hurricane Center and other agencies, stressed that it is impossible to pinpoint an exact landfall so far in advance and that projected paths could change wildly over the next couple of days.

Much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from eastern Texas to the Florida panhandle remains a possible target for Gustav.

This morning, bayou residents lined up outside the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office to purchase passes that would guarantee them re-entry to their community if the storm passes and roads are blocked.

The passes cost $1 and are available for residents of Dularge, Little Caillou, Grand Caillou, Montegut and Pointe-aux-Chenes.

Maj. Euia Usie said the passes are for sale year-round, but people began showing up for them as early as Thursday. An estimated 350 have been sold.

“The people are starting up,” Usie said. “They want to leave, but they want to get back.”

Usie said deputies are asking residents to bring a photo ID and a bill with their home address to purchase a pass.

“That’s not etched in stone,” he said. “That’s just what we’re asking for.”

The state’s evacuation plan calls for residents of extreme coastal Louisiana, including Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes south of the Intracoastal Waterway, to leave 50 hours before tropical storm-force winds are projected to affect the area.

The rest of the two parishes would evacuate 40 hours ahead of tropical-storm-force winds.

Since Gustav’s winds are expected to reach southern Terrebonne by early Tuesday morning at the earliest, an evacuation decision would likely come Saturday evening, Claudet said Thursday.

“We can’t do this unless it’s absolutely necessary,” he said Thursday afternoon, citing the expenses of evacuating.

With the storm more than a thousand miles away and no possible way for forecasters to predict its exact path, Richard said the parish is under a voluntary evacuation. He said officials could not give a time line on when an evacuation might be ordered.

“That is a trigger that has absolutely not been pulled at this time,” Richard said.

If an evacuation is ordered, residents are ordered to leave, but Claudet pointed out that people cannot be bodily dragged out of their houses.

In the event Gustav arrives as a tropical storm or Category 1 or 2 hurricane, the parish will open shelters at South Terrebonne High, Evergreen Junior High, Houma Junior High, Legion Park Middle, Schriever Elementary, Southdown Elementary, Terrebonne High and West Park Elementary. The shelters will be staffed by volunteers with the help of the Houma Police and the Terrebonne Sheriff’s Office.

No shelters will be opened if Gustav hits as a Category 3 or greater storm.

The Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center is designated as the pickup point for residents who need transportation if an evacuation is ordered. To arrange transportation to the Civic Center, call the Office of Emergency Preparedness at 873-6357 to get added to the list. The parish can also pick up pets, Richard said.

A shelter for special-needs residents will not be set up at Nicholls State University, Richard said.

If you or someone else has special medical needs that could hinder evacuation, call 1-800-228-9409.

If an evacuation is ordered, residents are required to leave, but Claudet pointed out that people cannot be bodily dragged out of their houses.

However, if you stay in your house after a mandatory evacuation is ordered, you shouldn’t expect to be rescued if waters start rising, he added.