Gulf Coast braces for fast-moving blast of tropical weather

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 in Miami issued hurricane and storm surge warnings for southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi and Alabama coasts. A hurricane warning was also issued for metropolitan New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain.

States of emergency were declared in all three states as Nate – which has already killed at least 21 people in Central America – became the latest in a succession of destructive storms this hurricane season.

Evacuation orders were issued for some coastal communities, including the Louisiana towns of Jean Lafitte and Grand Isle.

Shelly Jambon, owner of Sureway Supermarket in Grand Isle, said she plans on riding 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.”

Forecasters said in a Friday night advisory that the storm was nearly hurricane strength, with maximum sustained winds increasing to 70 mph as it moved into the southern Gulf of Mexico. A storm becomes a Category 1 hurricane when winds hit 74 mph.

Nate is forecast to dump 3 to 6 inches of rain on the region – with isolated totals of up to 10 inches. That much rain led authorities to warn of flash flooding and mudslides. By Friday night, Nate was 500 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. It was expected to strengthen as it moves over the Gulf and make landfall in the U.S. late Saturday or Sunday. A tropical storm watch extended across Alabama and northeast Georgia, including the Atlanta metro area.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu ordered a curfew for the city from 7 p.m. Saturday to sometime Sunday morning after Nate has made landfall on the Gulf Coast. He wasn’t specific about when the curfew would end.

The state mobilized 1,300 National Guard troops. Some were headed to New Orleans, where summer storms already have exposed problems with the city’s fragile 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 Thursday.

The storm is expected to become a hurricane before making landfall late Saturday or early Sunday. Landrieu said forecasts are for New Orleans to get 2 to 4 inches of rain, which its pumps can handle.

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 low-lying coastal areas, as well as from winds that could damage mobile homes.

“If you are in an area that has flooded, I would recommend you evacuate that area until the storm has ended and the water has receded for your own personal safety and for the safety of the first responders that will be responding in the event you are trapped,” Bryant said.

Dozens of offshore oil and gas platforms and drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico have been evacuated as Nate churns through warm waters.

The storm threatened to disrupt one of the Mississippi coast’s biggest annual tourist events, the “Cruisin’ the Coast” auto show. Biloxi firefighters warned more than 700 recreational vehicle campers that they may need to leave early. The event continued as normal Friday, but Saturday’s events were canceled, replaced by a brief closing ceremony.

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. Edwards also issued an emergency declaration in August for storm-related flooding in New Orleans.

On Alabama’s Dauphin Island, owners hauled boats out of the water ahead of the storm and tourists canceled beach reservations for the weekend. The major concern was that Nate’s storm surge was projected to coincide with high tide.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Director Lee Smithson expressed confidence that the federal government would be able to provide help to Mississippi even as the Federal Emergency Management Agency continues to respond to previous hurricanes in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Bryant authorized the use of the Mississippi National Guard to respond to any damage. Officials said they would open 11 evacuation shelters in areas away from the immediate coast, and that the regional bus system could transport people who can’t drive to shelters on their own.

“This is a fast-moving storm,” Smithson said.