Tropical Storm Gordon sputtered Wednesday after sweeping ashore overnight, saturating the Gulf Coast but sparing the region a new round of widespread destruction.

The storm made landfall just west of the Alabama-Mississippi border at about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said, with maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour. That’s 4 miles an hour below what’s needed for a tropical cyclone to be classified as a Category One hurricane.

Although the authorities said the storm caused minimal property damage, they reported the death of a child who was killed when a tree fell on a mobile home in Escambia County, Fla., on Tuesday night. Tens of thousands of customers spent part of Wednesday without electricity.

The hurricane center warned that the storm, which was downgraded to a tropical depression just before sunrise on Wednesday, could bring substantial rain and flooding as it passes over Mississippi and Arkansas. The storm is then expected to turn toward Missouri and wind through the Midwest.