Why Would People Evacuate West Instead of North or East?

Perhaps people can explain this to me.  The media is talking about evacuating New Orleans and heading to the West.  However, the projected storm track, above, seems to show a rather good chance that the hurricane will hit to the West of New Orleans, and perhaps as far West as Texas.  So why would they plan to take people from New Orleans and bring them West, into the  highly possible path of the hurricane?

It makes no sense to me.  Why not evacuate East along I-10 or North along I-59 or I-55?  Those seem like much better paths to safety, if indeed one is needed.

Anyway, the latest projections seem to indicate, at least to me, that Gustav is not a threat to this game but it could be a threat to the Troy game, especially if it slows down even more.