NEW ORLEANS , Louisiana ( CNN ) -- Hurricane Gustav did n't pack the wallop of Katrina three years earlier , officials said Monday , but they urged almost 2 million evacuees to stay away from the Gulf Coast for another day . A man walks past a storefront that collapsed as Hurricane Gustav passed through Lafayette , Louisiana , on Monday . `` Tomorrow is not a day to start coming back to the city of New Orleans , '' Mayor Ray Nagin said Monday night . `` Power lines are down all over the city ; there 's a significant number of homes and businesses that are without power , '' Nagin said . Still , he said , Gustav did n't do the damage feared a few days ago , a possible repeat of 2005 's Hurricane Katrina . `` I 'd probably call Gustav , instead of the mother of all storms , maybe the mother-in-law or the ugly sister of all storms , '' Nagin said . Across Louisiana , more than 800,000 people were without electricity , and some may not see it restored for two weeks or more , Gov . Bobby Jindal said . At a news conference with Jindal , Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urged Gulf Coast residents who evacuated to stay away until damage could be assessed . But even those who fled faced hardships . About 2,700 people who took up short-term residence Monday in the Louisiana State University Agriculture Center in Alexandria were told that the buildings generator power was not reaching the plumbing system , meaning no showers and no flushing toilets , said John Barnett , head of the facilities . `` It 's really crowded , and everybody 's just trying to do their best , '' said Kesha Harlow , who was there with her daughter , 8 , and her son , 2 months . `` We 're just waiting for the storm to blow over . '' Gustav roared from the Gulf of Mexico into southern Louisiana on Monday as a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 110 mph , bringing fierce winds and heavy rains from the Alabama-Florida border west into Texas . In Baton Rouge , Louisiana , two people were killed when a tree fell on the house where they were staying after they had come from farther south to escape the storm , officials said . A man was killed in a similar incident in north Lafayette , Louisiana , officials said . Four hospice patients died while waiting for air ambulances to evacuate them from southern Louisiana , according to Richard Zuschlag , chairman and CEO of Acadian Ambulance . Gustav was blamed for more than 60 deaths in the Caribbean , including 51 in southwestern Haiti . At 10 p.m. CT , Gustav was a tropical storm with sustained winds of 60 mph , the National Hurricane Center said . In New Orleans , Gustav drove sheets of water over the protective levees around the Industrial Canal early Monday afternoon , but the walls appeared to hold up under the onslaught as the winds faded . Up to 6 feet of water spilled into an industrial park in the Upper 9th Ward late Monday morning , pouring through small gaps in the concrete flood walls before receding in the afternoon . Watch water spill over the levee » . But as the storm eased , inspectors from the Army Corps of Engineers and parish levee boards went out to check on the earthen walls and have found nothing to raise alarm , said Col. Craig Gunter , a Corps of Engineers spokesman . iReport.com : See one reader 's footage of the levee . `` The levees all held up , '' Nagin said . `` I was hoping that this would happen , that we would be able to stand before America and before everyone and say we had some success with the levee system . '' With the water level in Lake Pontchartrain north of the city rising , the Army Corps of Engineers closed flood gates on the 17th Street Canal and the London Avenue Canal , two areas that caused some of the more severe flooding during Katrina . Official feared late Monday afternoon that a private levee south of New Orleans was in danger of failing , but water levels receded , and sandbagging efforts appeared to have paid off . `` We have stopped the bleeding , and I am very encouraged by what we are seeing , '' Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said of the levee in Braithwaite . Gustav made landfall Monday morning near the coastal town of Cocodrie , Louisiana , about 80 miles southwest of New Orleans . iReport : Watch winds rip New Orleans rooftop . The storm 's eastern bands , which generally pack the most powerful winds , also hammered Mississippi as Gustav moved to the west of New Orleans . In Biloxi , Mississippi , iReporter Kevin Wise , who lives two blocks from the beach , said Gustav had pushed the Gulf waters into a highway about 100 yards from the normal shoreline . `` On the beach , it was blowing hard enough that you had to squat down to take a picture ; it could pretty much throw you around , '' he said . Wise said he and his wife ignored mandatory evacuation orders for his area . Almost 2 million residents evacuated the Louisiana coast , but some in New Orleans opted to brave the storm . `` It really did n't look as vicious as , obviously , Katrina did , '' Jack Bosma said . Watch gales batter home , reporter » . He said the wind scattered his back gate across his yard , but his power was on , and neighbors had been congregating on his porch . `` It 's really , quite honestly , basically , just like a bad storm . It does n't seem that drastic at all , '' he said . iReport.com : Did you stay ? Share your story . Property damage from Gustav could total $ 8 billion , just 25 percent of Sunday 's estimate , according to a federally supported computer projection issued Monday morning . See damage map » . Meanwhile , forecasters said late Monday that Hurricane Hanna was nearly stationary in the Bahamas . At 11 p.m . ET , Hanna had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph , making it a Category 1 storm . Hanna could make landfall Friday near the Georgia/South Carolina border , possibly as a Category 2 storm with winds of 100 mph . And in the far eastern Atlantic , Tropical Storm Ike formed Monday with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph , the National Hurricane Center said . It was headed toward the Bahamas . CNN 's Kathleen Koch , Jeanne Meserve , Mike Ahlers , Morgan Neill , Matt Sloane , Susan Roesgen , Chris Lawrence and Ali Velshi contributed to this report .
NEW : Gustav downgraded to tropical storm . - The NHC is warning of a possible hurricane threat for the eastern Caribbean and northern Gulf Coast through Saturday night. About 2 million evacuees urged to stay away while damaged assessed . 800,000 lose electricity , may take weeks to restore , Louisiana governor says . Watch breaking hurricane news live on CNN.com .