Gulf Coast residents brace for Tropical Storm Karen

From a tiny vulnerable island off Louisiana to the beaches of the Florida Panhandle, Gulf Coast residents prepared on Thursday for a possible hit by Tropical Storm Karen, which threatened to become the first named tropical system to menace the United States this year.

Karen was forecast to lash the northern Gulf Coast over the weekend as a weak hurricane or tropical storm. A hurricane watch was in effect from Grand Isle, La., to west of Destin, Fla. A tropical storm warning was issued for the Louisiana coast from Grand Isle to the mouth of the Pearl River, including the New Orleans area.

In Alabama, safety workers hoisted double red flags at Gulf Shores because of treacherous rip currents ahead of the storm.

In Mississippi, Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency, urging residents to prepare. State Emergency Management Agency Director Robert Latham said local schools will decide whether to play football games. He said the southern part of the state could have tropical-storm-force winds by late Friday.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal also declared a state of emergency, citing the possibility of strong winds, heavy rain and high tides. Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared an emergency for 18 counties.

The Army Corps of Engineers said it was closing a structure intended to keep storm surges out of the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal in Louisiana — known locally as the Industrial Canal — where levee breaches during Hurricane Katrina led to catastrophic flooding in 2005.

Mayor David Camardelle of Grand Isle, an inhabited barrier island and tourist town about 60 miles south of New Orleans, called for voluntary evacuations when he declared an emergency Thursday afternoon.

Louisiana officials were taking precautions while noting that forecasts showed the storm veering to the east. The storm track had it likely brushing the southeastern tip of the state before heading toward the coasts of Alabama and Florida. And it was moving faster than last year's Hurricane Isaac, a weak storm that stalled over the area and caused widespread flooding.

At least two oil companies said they were evacuating nonessential offshore personnel and securing rigs and platforms.

In Washington the White House said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was recalling some workers furloughed because of the government shutdown to prepare for the storm.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Karen was about 400 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River Thursday evening and had maximum sustained winds of 65 m.p.h., with higher gusts. The storm was moving north-northwest at 12 m.p.h. It could be at or near hurricane strength late Friday and early Saturday, forecasters said.

In Mexico's Caribbean-coast state of Quintana Roo, the brief passage of Karen before the storm moved north caused authorities to close seaports and some schools, but little rain was reported.

A few fishing camps and hamlets along the coast were ordered evacuated late Wednesday, and some boat services were suspended for the estimated 35,000 tourists currently in Cancun. But the head of the Cancun Hotel Association, Roberto Cintron, said tourists appeared to be taking it in stride.

While meteorologists said it was too soon to predict the storm's ultimate intensity, they said it could weaken a bit as it approaches the coast over the weekend.

"Our forecast calls for it to be right around the border of a hurricane and a tropical storm," said David Zelinsky, a hurricane-center meteorologist.

Whether it's a weak hurricane or strong tropical storm, Karen's effects are expected to be largely the same: heavy rain with the potential for a strong storm surge.

Forecasters say Karen is expected to bring 4 to 8 inches of rain to portions of the central and eastern Gulf Coast through Sunday night, mainly near and to the right of the storm's center.

Forecasters said a cold front approaching from the northwest was expected to turn Karen to the northeast, away from the Louisiana coast and toward the Florida Panhandle or coastal Alabama. But the timing of the front's arrival over the weekend was uncertain.

The storm was expected to pass over Gulf oil and gas fields from Louisiana to Alabama, but early forecasts suggested the storm would miss the massive oil-import facility at Port Fourchon, La., just west of Grand Isle, and the oil refineries that line the Mississippi River south of Baton Rouge.

The Associated Press