Storm Nate weakens as it hits US Gulf Coast

NEWORLEANS: Nate eased quickly overnight from one of the fastestmoving hurricanes ever to hit the US Gulf Coast to a fitful and deteriorating tropical depression, but only after flooding streets and casinos, pitching boats onto beaches and leaving thousands without power.

The storm, once predicted to hit mainland US as a powerful Category Two storm, had left a trail of death and destruction in Central America.

But it weakened rapidly overnight after making landfall twice as a Category One storm -- first in Louisiana and then along the Mississippi coast -- its impact far less severe than predicted.

“Rapid weakening anticipated,” the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, and the extent of damage was far less devastating than earlier hurricanes had inflicted.

New Orleans, ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was largely spared, and Mayor Mitch Landrieu lifted a mandatory curfew after only an hour.

Around the region, crews were already at work Sunday restoring power to the estimated 100,000 customers who lost it.

Nate will, nonetheless, go down in history as part of one of the most destructive hurricane seasons in years, coming hard on the more devastating heels of storms named Harvey, Irma and Maria.