Storm warning for US Gulf Coast as potential cyclone nears
AUSTIN, Texas: The National Hurricane Centre issued a tropical storm watch for parts of the US Gulf of Mexico Coast as a potential tropical cyclone bringing heavy rains and strong winds was expected to hit the area this week.
What has been dubbed Potential Tropical Cyclone Seven was set to drench part of the FloridaAlabama border from tomorrow night, dropping as much as 8 inches of rain in some areas of a region still reeling from hurricanes a year ago.
“This rainfall may cause flash flooding,” the Miami-based NHC said. It has also issued a tropical storm watch for the New Orleans area and a flash flood watch for large parts of the Louisiana coast into the Houston area. A storm surge watch is in effect for the Mississippi-Alabama border, westward to the mouth of the Mississippi River, officials said. At that time, the storm was about 175 miles west of Marathon Florida, the weather service said.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said, he had activated the state’s Crisis Action Team as a precaution. There were no immediate indications that the storm had so far affected energy operations in the Gulf of Mexico area.
The storm now packing maximum sustained winds of 30mph is expected to produce up to 4 inches of rain in parts of the Bahamas, the Florida Keys and South Florida through early Tuesday, it said.