US Gulf Coast Bracing for Rain as Storm Approaches

Posted September 2nd, 2011 at 2:45 pm (UTC-5)
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A tropical storm over the Gulf of Mexico is set to bring massive amounts of rain to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Forecasters upgraded the weather system from a tropical depression to a tropical storm, named Lee, on Friday. The system is the 12th named storm of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season.

Lee's approach has already prompted oil and gas producers to shut down platforms and evacuate workers from the Gulf. The state of Louisiana declared a state of emergency Thursday because of the threat of flooding.

The National Hurricane Center says the system could dump as much as 50 centimeters of rain over southern parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama through Sunday.

Tropical storm warnings have been issued from Mississippi to Texas. The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, which suffered devastating damage in 2005 from Hurricane Katrina, is one of the areas in the storm's path.

The storm is 340 kilometers southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River, with maximum winds of 65 kilometers an hour.

The threat comes as emergency crews continue to help residents recover from a hurricane that ravaged the eastern U.S. just days ago.

Flooding devastated parts of the states of Vermont, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and North Carolina after Hurricane Irene brought high winds and heavy rains.

Irene is blamed for at least 45 deaths in the U.S. and five in the Caribbean, and has caused billions of dollars of damage.

U.S. President Barack Obama signed disaster declarations for New York, New Jersey and North Carolina, making federal funding available for recovery efforts. Mr. Obama is scheduled to visit the state of New Jersey on Sunday to view wind and flood damage from Irene.

Meanwhile, forecasters are monitoring Hurricane Katia, which regained hurricane status in the Atlantic on Friday. The storm is moving west with maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour.

Katia, the second Atlantic hurricane of the season, is currently classified as a Category 1 storm on the five-point scale of hurricane intensity, after being downgraded to a tropical storm earlier in the week.

September is normally the peak of the hurricane season. Experts predicted an active 2011 hurricane season with eight to 10 hurricanes possible, which would be slightly more than normal.