Louisianan worries about what he left behind as he flees Gustav

(CNN) -- Roberto Ascencio has lived in the New Orleans area for 30 years, 28 of them on the West Bank of the Mississippi River.

The last time he fled the city, ahead of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he was worried about his restaurant, which was two months away from opening. Once again, as he leaves town, his primary concern is his restaurant, which finally opened little more than a year ago after repairing damage from Katrina.

"It was very hard to get back to where we were, because the money was gone," he said.

"I'm worried because it's my livelihood. My wife runs the restaurant with my sister-in-law. We worked so hard to get there. If it gets destroyed again, I'll probably go bankrupt. I'm just praying that it's going to be OK."

Praying is all he or anyone leaving New Orleans can do as Hurricane Gustav makes its away across the Gulf of Mexico towards the Gulf Coast. View a map of Gustav's projected path »

By Sunday night, more than 1.9 million people had fled the city and its surrounding parishes, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said, many of them, like Ascencio, spending hours in traffic. Watch Jindal discuss the progress of evacuations »

"I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. As soon as we hit the interstate, it was bumper-to-bumper. It was very, very slow-moving," he said.

As the sun set behind him Sunday, Ascencio was driving east on Interstate 10 with his wife, daughter, three cats, three dogs and two birds. After 16 hours on the road, he was closing in on Biloxi, Mississippi, about 60 miles east of New Orleans. iReport.com: Leaving home? Share your story

"We just took off," he says. "We don't know where we're going right now. It's just crazy."

When Katrina hit three years ago, Ascencio and his family fled New Orleans for Houston, Texas. That trip took 18 hours, he said.

Then, like now, the worst part was leaving behind his restaurant.

This time, Ascencio said he took all the precautions he could before he left, safeguarding his stocks in the restaurant and moving possessions in his two-story home upstairs. CNN's Susan Roesgen report on evacuations from New Orleans »

But supplies were limited. The local home improvement store was out of plywood to board up the restaurant windows when he arrived.

But he did what we could and set out on the road, unsure of where he would end up.

"Everybody on my side has Louisiana license plates. It looks like we own the whole highway," Ascencio says, almost laughing. But just as quickly, his voice turns serious.

"I hope everything is well. I'll need to get back and see how things are going, but right now we've just got to keep going."

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