? As Tropical Storm Gustav approaches the Gulf Coast, Long Islanders are gearing up to help.

Two volunteers left for Mississippi Thursday morning, and more are loading supplies onto trucks bound for the South.

?Well, [the volunteers] are heading to Hatteisburg, Mississippi, which is going to be a staging area for hundreds of volunteers and trucks,? says Sam Kille, of the Nassau Red Cross. ?From there, they?ll get supplies, and once the storm passes, they?ll go to the regions that are affected by the storm.?

Louisiana has declared a state of emergency due to the storm, and New Orleans officials have begun preliminary planning for evacuation and lockdown of the city.

Forecasters say the storm, now moving toward Jamaica, is almost a hurricane again, and it could hit anywhere from south Texas to the Florida panhandle Tuesday.

Gustav has been blamed for at least 59 deaths in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

It has been three years since Louisiana and other Gulf states were hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Red Cross