with the landfall of hurricane gustav on the u.s. gulf coast, the white house canceled the planned appearances of president bush and vice president dick cheney. governors bobby jindal of louisiana and rick perry of texas skipped the convention to remain in their states during the hurricane's landfall. the monday, september 1, 2008, schedule was compressed to two hours from seven. mccain called on the party to reduce partisan activities ahead of the hurricane's arrival. the republican party chartered a dc-9 to fly convention delegates representing the affected areas back home to their families. the last time a major hurricane struck in a presidential-election year was hurricane andrew in 1992, which hit south florida four days after the republican convention in houston, texas.