NEW ORLEANS, Aug 28: Tropical Storm Isaac closed in on the US Gulf Coast, triggering evacuation orders in some areas and disrupting offshore oil production as it threatened to make landfall between Florida and Louisiana as a full-blown hurricane.
The wide, slow-moving storm swiped south Florida on Sunday and strengthened over the warm Gulf waters. It was expected to reach land late today or early tomorrow, the anniversary of devastating Hurricane Katrina seven years ago.
The US National Hurricane Center warned the storm could buffet towns and cities in at least three US states near the shoreline and flood the northern Gulf coast with a storm surge of up to (3.6 metres) in some areas.
“The weather will start going downhill overnight tonight on the northern Gulf Coast,” Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb told reporters yesterday. “Wherever it is people are going to be during the storm, they need to get there tonight.”
Isaac was forecast to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, with top winds of (153 kph), before making landfall and moving over the Gulf Coast.
The storm could take direct aim at New Orleans, which is still struggling to fully recover from Katrina, which swept across the city on Aug. 29, 2005, killing more than 1,800 people and causing billions of dollars of damage along the coast.
“That brings a high level of anxiety to the people of New Orleans,” said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “I want to tell everybody now that I believe that we will be OK.”
At (0830 IST), Isaac was centered (305 km) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River with top sustained winds of
(110 kph) — a speed that places the storm very near hurricane status—and swirling northwest at (17 kph).
The storm was more than (645 km) wide. Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the worst effects may well be in Mississippi and Alabama.
“This is not a New Orleans storm. This is a Gulf Coast storm,” Fugate said.
The governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama declared states of emergency, and mandatory evacuation orders went into effect for residents of several low-lying districts, including about 8,000 to 10,000 residents of Mobile, Alabama, as well as nearby Dauphin Island.
President Barack Obama approved Louisiana’s request for a federal disaster declaration, Governor Bobby Jindal said. Obama’s approval, given in a phone call that included the governors of Mississippi and Alabama, makes federal funds available for disaster recovery activities like clearing debris.
Energy producers in the Gulf of Mexico shut down some of their operations ahead of what could be the biggest test for US energy installations since 2008, when Hurricanes Gustav and Ike disrupted offshore oil output for months and damaged onshore natural gas processing plants, pipelines and some refineries.
The ports of Mobile and New Orleans were closed and barge traffic was suspended along southern portions of the Mississippi River.
In New Orleans, which is below sea level, long lines formed at some gas stations. Skies over the city were gray and a stiff breeze signaled the approaching storm. Along Canal Street in the city’s historic French Quarter, crews were boarding up storefront windows.
Charles Neeley, a 69-year-old contractor overseeing a group of workers covering the windows of a drugstore, said he was undeterred by the storm.
“We usually ride out ones and twos and get the hell out for threes and fours,” he said, referring to the categories of hurricane strength.
(agencies)
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