Cindy expected to drench Gulf Coast with heavy rain
NEW ORLEANS – Tropical Storm Cindy barreled toward the Gulf Coast on Tuesday with heavy rains and 70 mph winds, forcing tourists and residents to head for higher ground and oil companies to evacuate rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.
Another tropical storm, Dennis, also developed in the Caribbean and forecasters warned it could hit Florida later in the week.
Cindy reached tropical storm strength early Tuesday and developed sustained wind of around 70 mph, just shy of the hurricane threshold of 74 mph. Forecasters said Cindy could reach the coast around the Louisiana-Mississippi state line late Tuesday or early today, but it was not expected to become a hurricane.
A tropical storm warning was posted from Morgan City, La., to the Florida Panhandle town of Destin.
Forecasters said the storm could bring up to 10 inches of rain, and showers from the outer edges of Cindy began hitting the coast Tuesday. There were scattered reports of street flooding in Jefferson Parish, a New Orleans suburb.
Numerous flights in and out of the New Orleans airport were canceled and Amtrak suspended passenger rail service to and from the city until this afternoon.
At the Cajun Tide Beach Resort on the tiny Louisiana barrier island town of Grand Isle, owners Shirley Riche and David Ducote said they were beginning to see the wind pick up and mix with a little rain as the outer bands of Cindy began lashing the island, but it was all bearable.
“We’re enjoying it. It’s a misty rain, it’s cool. It’s actually really nice. We’re outside cleaning fish, getting ready to cook some supper,” Riche said.
Officials earlier ordered recreational vehicles on Grand Isle to leave so that Louisiana Highway 1, the only route off the island, would not be clogged with slow-moving traffic should a full-scale evacuation be necessary.
“We have just a small timetable here to work,” said Grand Isle town clerk Ray Santiny. “It would be horrendous with all these campers on the highway to get our people out.”
In Mississippi’s coastal Hancock County, jail inmates filled sandbags for distribution to flood-prone areas, said Dee Lumpkin of the county’s Emergency Operations Center.
Tropical Storms Cindy and Dennis are the third and fourth named storms of the Atlantic hurricane season. July 5 is the earliest date on record for four named storms, and worries about the already active season helped send oil prices climbing briefly past $60 a barrel Tuesday.
A survey of oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico found that 23 petroleum production platforms and six drilling rigs had been evacuated, interrupting more than 3 percent of the gulf’s normal oil and natural gas production.
Dennis was centered about 325 miles south-southwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was on track to reach Haiti today and South Florida on Friday, said hurricane center meteorologist Trisha Wallace.
Dennis was moving toward the Gulf with winds of 40 mph, just above the 39 mph threshold for tropical storm status.