From sandbag filling to ditch clearing, Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price said his city will be prepared for the worst if Gustav decides to pay a visit.

Ironically on the anniversary of Katrina, which deluged the city of 15,000 with several feet of tidal surge from Lake Pontchartrain, Hurricane/Tropical Storm Gustav formed in the Caribbean earlier this week and is projected by the National Hurricane Center to cross into the Gulf sometime Sunday morning.

Once there, it'��s anyone'��s guess on where the storm goes, but Louisiana'��s coastline lies in the center of the cone of uncertainty and that is making officials nervous, especially Mandeville officials. To prepare for a possible landfall, crews began bagging and stashing sand yesterday at the public works complex at the end of Mandeville High Boulevard.

Today, Price said, crews will likely begin a more diligent effort, working around the clock making thousands of sandbags that residents can pick up at the complex when the green light is given.

In addition, Price said parish officials will distribute phone numbers today to notify citizens where they can find the sandbagging site nearest to them.

Because the city primarily relies on gravity-fed drainage, Price said crews have also begun clearing ditches and drainage canals of debris with their efforts scheduled to continue over the next several days.

'��We'��re so far away from knowing anything,'�� Price said. '��The path is going to be the key to all of this. If it moves a little bit west or east, that changes the picture for us.'��

Anyone who sees ditches needing to be cleared should call public works at 624-3106 or City Hall at 626-3144.