Florida already lashed by heavy rain and high winds as storm predicted to strengthen before making landfall on Gulf coast

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Tropical Storm Gordon is strengthening fast as it roars across the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to hit the Mississippi coast as a hurricane late on Tuesday.

Gordon formed into a tropical storm near the Florida Keys early on Monday, lashing the southern part of the state with heavy rains and high winds.

By early Tuesday morning, the storm’s center was 230 miles east-south-east of the mouth of the Mississippi river, with top sustained winds of 65mph, forecasters said. It was moving relatively quickly across the warm ocean waters, at about 17mph.

A hurricane warning was put into effect for parts of Mississippi and east to the Alabama-Florida border. As much as eight inches of rain could fall in some parts of the Gulf states through late Thursday and authorities are preparing for rising waters of up to five feet.

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The Miami-based National Hurricane Center is predicting a “life-threatening” storm surge along parts of the central Gulf coast. A storm surge warning has been issued for the area stretching from Louisiana to Alabama.

“The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large waves,” a statement from the center said.

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Louisiana’s state governor, John Bel Edwards, declared a state of emergency on Monday, which triggers federal assistance as well as warnings to the public, and said 200 national guard troops would be deployed to south-eastern Louisiana.

The storm’s predicted track had shifted slightly east by Monday evening, meaning Louisiana was just outside the area under the hurricane warning. Still, the south-eastern part of the state remains under a tropical storm warning and residents need to be prepared for the storm to shift west, Edwards said.

“This storm has every possibility to track further in our direction,” Edwards said during a news conference on Monday evening.

The mayor of New Orleans, LaToya Cantrell, said the city has “the pumps and the power” needed to protect residents. But authorities issued a voluntary evacuation order for some areas outside the city’s levee protection system.



