Gulf Coast braces ahead of tropical storm
The National Hurricane Center issues hurricane and storm surge warnings for southeastern Louisiana and the Mississippi and Alabama coasts ahead of Tropical Storm Nate.
NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Gulf Coast braced Friday for a fast-moving blast of wind, heavy rain and rising water as deadly Tropical Storm Nate threatened to reach hurricane strength before a weekend landfall.
The National Hurricane Center issued hurricane and storm surge warnings for southeasterm Louisiana and the Mississippi and Alabama coasts. States of emergency were declared in all three states as Nate — which has killed at least 21 people in Central America — became the latest in a succession of destructive storms this hurricane season.
‘A mild one for us’
Nate is forecast to dump 3 to 6 inches of rain on the region — with isolated totals of up to 12 inches. That much rain led authorities to warn of flash flooding and mudslides. By midafternoon Friday, Nate had top winds of 65 mph and was moving at a speed of 22 mph. Its center was located about 90 miles northeast of Cozumel, Mexico, and was expected to reach the U.S. late Saturday or early Sunday.
Evacuation orders were issued for some coastal communities, including the Louisiana towns of Jean Lafitte and Grand Isle.
Shelly Jambon, owner of a supermarket in Grand Isle, said she plans to ride out the storm at her store even though it’s across the street from the beach. She bought it two years before Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005 and has weathered far more threatening storms than Nate.
“It’s a mild one for us,” she said. “Seventy to 80 mph winds? We get that in a winter storm.”
The state mobilized 1,300 National Guard troops. Some were headed to New Orleans, where summer storms have exposed problems with the city’s pumping system.
“We don’t anticipate that this is going to cause a devastating impact to New Orleans or exceed the ability for the pumps,” Gov. Jon Bel Edwards said.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency in six southernmost counties. State officials, at a briefing Friday in Gulfport, warned that Nate’s main danger in that state will be from up to 10 feet of storm surge in lowlying coastal areas, as well as from winds that could damage mobile homes.
Rigs evacuated
Dozens of offshore oil and gas platforms and drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico have been evacuated as Nate churns through warm waters. Ingalls Shipbuilding, the Mississippi coast’s largest industrial employer, announced Friday that only a skeleton crew would work Saturday and Sunday at the Pascagoula shipyard.
The northern Gulf Coast areas targeted by Nate largely have been spared the worst effects of a catastrophic hurricane season, but Louisiana’s emergency declaration for Nate isn’t its first since the start of summer. In August, a weakened Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Louisiana after dealing a devastating blow to Texas and then nudging back into the Gulf of Mexico.