HURRICANE SEASON 2008

BUSH RESPONSE

Gustav stole the limelight from the Republican Convention to nominate presidential candidate John McCain. It opened on Monday with a bare-bones program.

President George W. Bush, who was heavily criticized for the slow Katrina relief efforts, canceled his appearance at the convention and went to Texas to oversee relief effort.

A dangerous Category 4 hurricane a few days ago, Gustav hit shore near Cocodrie, Louisiana, about 70 miles southwest of New Orleans, as a Category 2 storm, one step below Katrina's strength at landfall.

Initial loss estimates from Gustav were far below those for Katrina, which caused total loses of more than $80 billion, making it the costliest hurricane in U.S. history.

EQECAT Inc., which helps insurers model catastrophe risk, said it estimated Gustav's insured losses at $6 billion to $10 billion. AIR Worldwide Corp., another firm that provides models for the financial risk from disasters, estimated that Gustav had caused up to $4.5 billion in losses on land and up to another $4.4 billion to offshore oil and gas installations.

Before landfall in Louisiana, Gustav killed at least 97 people in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Florida.

As fears over Gustav eased, Tropical Storm Hanna grew to hurricane strength near the southeast Bahamas, threatening the U.S. east coast from Florida to the Carolinas, and Tropical Storm Ike formed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Meanwhile, a new tropical depression formed in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean south of the Cape Verde Islands and was expected to become a tropical storm later on Tuesday.

The depression, which will be dubbed Tropical Storm Josephine once its maximum sustained winds reach 39 miles per hour (64 kph), was located 170 miles southeast of the Cape Verde Islands.

It marks the 10th tropical depression of this year's busy Atlantic hurricane season.

(Additional reporting by Tom Brown in Miami, Lilla Zuill in New York, David Alexander and Sandra Maler in Washington, and Bruce Nichols, Chris Baltimore and Erwin Seba in Houston; Writing by Jim Loney and Kevin Krolicki; Editing by Mary Milliken and Sandra Maler)