Elton Driscoll, Jr. carries a U.S. flag that he removed from a hotel down the deserted and boarded-up Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans August 28, 2005. Authorities in New Orleans ordered hundreds of thousands of residents to flee on Sunday as Hurricane Katrina strengthened into a rare top-ranked storm and barreled towards the vulnerable U.S. Gulf Coast city. REUTERS/Rick Wilking RTW/PEK