Louisiana works to restore power to 1.4 million homesStory Highlights
NEW: Oil platforms in Gulf weathered storm well, early assessments show
Evacuation saved lives, says Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
Some 1.4 million homes without power in Louisiana; 92,000 in Mississippi
Evacuees can come home by Thursday at latest, New Orleans mayor says
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (CNN) -- -- Louisiana was still feeling the effects of Gustav, now a tropical depression, on Tuesday, as some 1.4 million households in the state were without power, Gov. Bobby Jindal said.
Vernon Robin Jr. cuts up a tree downed by Hurricane Gustav in Morgan City, Louisiana, on Tuesday.
1 of 3 more photos » "We are still being impacted by the eastern periphery of this storm," Jindal said, citing rain, wind and the possibilities of tornadoes.
"This is still a very, very serious storm that has caused major damage in our state."
The electricity outage is "obviously a huge challenge as we're trying to get critical services back up," he said.
In Mississippi, 92,000 households remained without power, and 108 shelters were housing more than 14,000 evacuees Tuesday in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav, the state Emergency Management Agency said. Watch damage and flooding in Mississippi »
The agency said wind gusts in some areas were delaying the process of repairing outages.
It also said portions of roads in coastal counties remained closed.
Jindal noted that the levees and flood walls in southeast Louisiana held up to the storm's wind and rains, to the relief of citizens and officials alike, but water did overtop New Orleans' Industrial Canal.
"As many of you have seen, we do not have reports of widespread flooding in southeast Louisiana," he said. "We do not have the breaches." Watch a tour of an area that had close call with Gustav »
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told evacuees on Tuesday it was too soon to return home.
Two million people fled Gustav's advance under mandatory evacuation orders and with memories still fresh of Katrina, which flooded New Orleans and killed more than 1,800 people in 2005.
Nagin said Tuesday morning they should "hold tight for today."
"We have over 50 percent of our citizens without power. Our sewer system is damaged and not operational. And our hospitals are still with skeletal crews. So we'll repair most of that today and tomorrow and start the process for re-entry thereafter," Nagin told CNN's "American Morning." Watch Nagin give an update on Gustav »
Businesses will be allowed to return to the area Wednesday, the mayor said, "and then the latest, Thursday, we'll start our citizens to arrive."
The evacuation was necessary and prevented a higher death toll, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Tuesday.
"The only reason we don't have more tales of people in grave danger and more loss of life is because everybody heeded the governor's instructions, the mayor's instructions, the parish president's instructions to get out of town," Chertoff said, appearing at a news conference with Jindal.
In East Baton Rouge Parish, nearly the entire population of 450,000 was without power. Hospitals were running on backup power, and fuel for critical needs was in short supply.
Parish residents learned Tuesday they will have to wait awhile for food, water, ice and blue tarpaulins from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
FEMA representatives told parish officials Monday that the supplies had been staged in Alexandria, Louisiana, about two hours away. Those critical supplies were supposed to be on the road as soon as winds died down and tractor-trailers could safely move. iReport.com: Pizza guy films Gustav tornado
But Tuesday morning, Walter Monsour, chief administrative officer of the parish, learned the supplies were not in Louisiana, but somewhere in Texas, and there was no estimated time of their arrival.
A FEMA spokesman in Baton Rouge, John Bajon, said he is trying to find out what caused the miscommunication and when the supplies will arrive.
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St. Mary Parish lost half of its sugar cane crop to the storm, but no injuries or deaths were reported, parish President Paul Naquin said Tuesday.
"I think we had an angel up there," Naquin said.
Naquin spoke as Chertoff and Jindal toured the parish, part of a trip to areas hit by Gustav, including New Orleans.
Seven deaths along the U.S. Gulf Coast were linked to Gustav, including four hospice patients who died during evacuations before the storm made landfall Monday.
President Bush said Tuesday that Gustav should push Congress to approve more offshore oil drilling in the United States.
"We need more domestic energy, not less," he said. This "storm should cause Congress to step up the need to address foreign oil dependence."
As damage assessment teams began aerial flyovers of Gulf Coast refineries and offshore platforms Tuesday, early reports showed that the industry weathered the storm well.
The hurricane's path steered the storm right through the heart of the region's biggest concentration of oil and gasoline producers. The Gulf is home to 25 percent of U.S. oil production.
"We're still in assessment mode, but so far, things are looking good," said Cathy Landry, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute. "Also, early reports are saying flooding at refineries hasn't happened, which was one of the big problems during Katrina and Rita."
Gustav was reduced to tropical depression status early Tuesday, with top winds of 35 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
But three more storm systems were brewing in the Atlantic. The hurricane center said Tropical Storm Hanna could make landfall as a major hurricane somewhere on the Southeastern U.S. coast by Friday evening. Behind Hanna were tropical storms Ike and Josephine.
Pointing to Hanna and Ike, Chertoff warned residents not to be complacent should the storms near the U.S. coastline.
"The message I want to send for the communities elsewhere in the country is get that evacuation right, because if you don't do it, then you're going to have a much less happy first 24 hours when that storm hits," Chertoff said. Watch what went right in New Orleans »
Heavy rain and possible tornadoes remained threats to the Gulf Coast region Tuesday as Gustav slowly moved northwest across Louisiana, according to the hurricane center.
Accumulations of 6 to 12 inches of rain were possible through Thursday over Louisiana, northeastern Texas, western Mississippi, Arkansas, southern Missouri and southeast Oklahoma, the center said. iReport.com: Did you stay? Share your story
Gustav knocked over trees and power poles across the region. High water closed most of U.S. 90 in Mississippi and Louisiana, and winds sent whitecaps cascading over the levees in New Orleans.
Gustav came ashore near Cocodrie, Louisiana -- about 80 miles southwest of New Orleans -- at midmorning Monday and then moved along the coast to the northwest, avoiding a direct hit on the Crescent City. Houma, Morgan City and other coastal cities took the brunt of the storm
