US on high alert as deadly Nate threatens Gulf coast
Hurricane Nate strengthened yesterday, threatening to hit the US central Gulf Coast with strong winds and storm surges after it killed at least 25 people in Central America. New Orleans moved residents from areas outside its levee system as Nate, a Category 1 hurricane, the weakest on a five-category scale used by meteorologists, moved towards the central Gulf of Mexico.
“Nate is at our doorstep or will be soon,” New Orleans’ mayor, Mitch Landrieu, said, adding that the winds could cause significant power cuts and storm surges are projected to be between 1.8 metres and 2.7 metres high.
“We have been through this many, many times. There is no need to panic,” Mr Landrieu said.
The storm brushed by Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, home to beach resorts such as Cancun and Playa del Carmen, as it headed north, the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida, said.
Nate, which has maximum sustained winds of 130 kilometres per hour, was about 550 kilometres south-southeast of the Mississippi river and was expected to strengthen before it makes landfall, the NHC said.
A state of emergency was declared for 29 Florida counties as well as the states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, including New Orleans, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The NHC issued a hurricane watch from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to the Alabama-Florida border.
Alabama governor Kay Ivey said: “This is a fast-moving storm and we must begin preparing now.”
Nearly three quarters of US
Gulf of Mexico oil production was offline before the storm and more oil companies halted operations on Friday.
Early yesterday, Nate was moving north-northwest at 35kph, a fast pace that if maintained could mean the storm does less damage when it hits land.
The storm doused Central America with heavy rain on Thursday, killing 12 people in Nicaragua, nine in Costa Rica, two in Honduras and two in El Salvador.
Thousands were forced to leave their homes, and Costa Rica’s government declared a state of emergency. Costa Rica’s president, Luis Guillermo Solis, urged residents to remain vigilant, noting rains were likely to resume.
In Honduras, residents wondered whether they would have to flee.
Norma Chavez and her two children watched a river rise outside their home in Tegucigalpa, the capital.
“We are worried that it will grow more and carry away the house,” said Ms Chavez, 45.
Until tomorrow, Nate is expected to produce 5 to 10 centimetres more rain in eastern Yucatan and western Cuba and 8cm to 15cm in the US central Gulf Coast.
About 71 per cent of US Gulf of Mexico oil production and 53 per cent of natural gas output is offline ahead of Nate’s arrival, the US department of the interior’s bureau of safety and environmental enforcement said on Friday.
Oil companies have lifted staff from 66 platforms and five drilling rigs, it said.
Oil production equalling 1.24 million barrels of crude per day is offline, the agency said.