DENVER -- By plane, by car, by bus, Gustav evacuees are getting out however they can, and some are coming to Denver to ride out the storm.

Al Hanson was born and raised in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and said the last few days have been eerily familiar.

"The same calmness that you felt in the area before Katrina was pretty much the same calmness that you felt in the area with Gustav," said Hanson.

He was one of the last evacuees to leave New Orleans three years ago, when the storm destroyed his home and leveled his neighborhood.

"OK, you know something is happening, you just don't know what, but you think ‘I'm not going to stick around this time to wait and see,’" he said.

So he hit the road Friday before the mandatory evacuation was ordered Saturday.

In bumper-to-bumper traffic, the normal 45-minute drive to Baton Rouge took more than three hours.

But he kept going, knowing someone was waiting.

“It’s definitely been nerve-wracking and frustrating on this end,” said Stephanie Mondragon, his fiancée, who lives in Denver. “Those first four to five hours of him trying to get out were probably the worst… I’m just relieved he’s home.”

He said the hurricane has helped give him perspective about what’s important in life.

He said it’s family.

Now, he plans to make his home in Denver, and he and Mondragon are getting married later this month.

“I don’t feel like going through this again in three months or six months,” he said. “Denver, it’s clean. It’s nice. There are no hurricanes. I prefer the snow, anyway, over the heat and humidity.”