Some Southeastern states declared emergencies and officials urged residents to head inland Thursday as Tropical Storm Hanna headed toward the U.S. Atlantic coast.

The federal government says it will pay hotel expenses for some of the nearly 2 million Gustav evacuees, but exactly who will be eligible and how much it will cost taxpayers is uncertain.

As traffic lined up leading to New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin decided Wednesday to let residents who fled Hurricane Gustav back after all ? with a warning the city was still vulnerable.

If Hurricane Katrina was one big lesson in government bungling, Gustav has been an open-book test of whether the politicians learned anything from the disaster.

Trying to burnish his government's reputation for handling a stormy crisis, President Bush said Wednesday the response to Hurricane Gustav has been "excellent" and praised improvement since Hurricane Katrina.

The tropics seem to be going crazy what with the remnants of Gustav, the new threat from Hanna, a strengthening Ike and newcomer Josephine. Get used to it.