Karen is expected to be at least a strong tropical storm at landfall Saturday. Tropical storm undoes two furloughs

The National Hurricane Center and FEMA called employees back on the job after Tropical Storm Karen formed Thursday morning off the Yucatan Peninsula, with predictions that it will become a hurricane shortly before bearing down on the U.S. Gulf Coast on Saturday.

Karen is expected to be at least a strong tropical storm when it makes landfall somewhere between eastern Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle. That will offer a test of the nation’s ability to mount a hurricane response during a government shutdown that has locked agency doors, shuttered websites and furloughed 800,000 federal workers while forcing “essential” employees to work without pay.


A FEMA official said furloughs had hit 86 percent of the emergency agency’s 4,300 permanent employees funded by lapsed appropriations.

( POLITICO's full government shutdown coverage)

The White House and leaders in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida pledged to mount full preparations for the storm, despite what Gov. Bobby Jindal called the “dysfunction” of the government shutdown. Still, Karen’s emergence offered yet another reminder that the hiatus in federal operations can affect the lives of Americans far removed from the posturing inside the Beltway.

President Barack Obama received a briefing on Karen on Thursday morning and directed the administration “to ensure that federal resources and personnel needed to support state and local preparation efforts are available and on the job,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney, who led off his afternoon news conference with an update on the storm.

Carney added that FEMA’s regional offices along the Gulf Coast have been in touch with state and local officials “and stand ready to assist our state and local partners.” He said FEMA “has begun to recall currently furloughed employees necessary to serve functions of the agency that protect life and property as they prepare for potential landfall.”

It was unclear exactly how many FEMA employees were being recalled because of the storm. But the agency said it maintains emergency supplies including water, millions of meals and hundreds of thousands of blankets “at all times” in distribution centers around the country.

Jindal, meanwhile, vowed in a statement to POLITICO that “we won’t let the dysfunction in Washington, D.C., impact our ability to be prepared.”

( PHOTOS: D.C. closes up shop)

“We’re ready. We’re prepared to mobilize the Louisiana National Guard, and our state agencies are readying resources so we can protect our people and respond to this storm,” Jindal said. “FEMA has also indicated they are taking people off of furloughs to assist our efforts. We will remain vigilant as this storm approaches, and I encourage everyone to stay informed of local updates and make sure to get a game plan in place for your family.”

Likewise, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said he and state emergency management chief Art Faulkner were in contact with the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center and FEMA to discuss storm preparations.

In Florida, state emergency management spokeswoman Julie Kay Roberts said leaders there have also been in touch with FEMA.

“We do not anticipate any issues at this time with the resources from FEMA for this storm,” she said.

The National Hurricane Center near Miami has remained open around-the-clock despite the shutdown, but it had furloughed its lead spokesman, Dennis Feltgen. Also furloughed was FEMA’s liaison to the hurricane center, Matthew Green.

Feltgen and Green both returned to work Thursday in preparation for the storm.

“That fills out our staff,” James Franklin, the center’s chief of hurricane operations, told POLITICO. “Two of our most important constituents are the media and the emergency management community. Those two were very important in outreach with very important partners.”

Hurricane hunter planes from the Air Force Reserve and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have also been on duty, repeatedly probing the disturbance even before Karen officially became a tropical storm Thursday morning.

In its 5 p.m. EDT update, the hurricane center said Karen’s strongest sustained winds remained at 65 mph and are expected to surge to 75 mph — making it a weak Category 1 hurricane — over the Gulf’s warm waters by early Saturday morning.

A hurricane watch was in effect from Grand Isle, La., to west of Destin, Fla., while a tropical storm warning was in place from Grand Isle to the mouth of the Pearl River. A tropical storm watch covered areas including New Orleans, Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain and the coast from Destin to Indian Pass, Fla.

A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected in the warning area within 36 hours. A tropical storm or hurricane watch means those conditions are “possible” within the affected area.

“The storm could still be near hurricane strength at landfall,” the hurricane center said.

Beyond the Gulf Coast, Karen’s forecast track could bring a soggy tropical depression to the Carolinas, southwestern or central Virginia, West Virginia or eastern Kentucky by Monday afternoon, although the probability of strong tropical-storm-force winds is centered mainly on Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and western Florida.

Kevin Robillard contributed to this report.