Tropical Storm Karen weakens off Gulf Coast

Despite earlier evacuation warnings and the launch of emergency operation plans, Tropical Storm Karen lost much of its punch late Saturday, leading weather forecasters to discontinue warnings in the Gulf Coast and downgrade the system's status to a tropical depression.

The National Weather Service said that the depression was stationary, but expected to move across or near the southeast Louisiana coast early Sunday, then track eastward and lose strength. Forecasters expected the system to lose nearly all of its strength by Monday.

Nevertheless, authorities said surges of 1 to 3 feet of water were still possible along the southeast Louisiana and Mississippi coast, with rainfall accumulations of up to 3 to 6 inches in isolated areas along various spots along the central Gulf Coast.

In low-lying Plaquemines Parish, La., officials changed an evacuation order from mandatory to voluntary Saturday afternoon. More than 80 evacuees from the area, at the state's southeastern tip, had taken refuge at a public shelter.

They gathered in an auditorium where they rested on cots, watched for weather updates on television and chatted outside on the front steps.

"I don't really know what to expect, but they told us to evacuate, so we got out," said Dana Etienne, 27, of Phoenix, La., who was at the shelter with her three young children.

Ahead of the storm, squalls of rain hit workers sandbagging low sections of the flood-prone town of Lafitte, La., along Bayou Barataria.

"We have a high tide, but we only have another 15-17 hours to worry about, and I don't think the tide will come up much more in that time," said Timothy Kerner, the town’s mayor. "It looks like it might come up another foot or two, but I think we're going to be okay."

Coastal authorities closed flood gates along waterways that could be affected by tides driven by the tropical depression. In New Orleans, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continued closing barriers designed to keep a surge out of the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal – the scene of catastrophic flooding in 2005 when flood walls failed during Hurricane Katrina.

Col. Richard Hansen of the corps said more gates along various canals could be closed, and warned boaters not to get caught on the wrong side of those gates.

"If there is a gate in the system, it may not be open when you decide to come back in," Hansen said. "So it's time to pull your boats out of the water and quit fishing."

At the Port of New Orleans, officials working with the Coast Guard said they were optimistic that vessel traffic at the mouth of the Mississippi River, halted since Friday morning, would resume Sunday. The port remained busy, officials said in a news release, with some of the nine ships at dock there still working cargo. Two Carnival cruise ships that had to delay weekend arrivals were expected Monday.

Dan Hahn, emergency operations planner for Santa Rosa County in the Florida Panhandle, said Karen appeared to be a "non-event" for the region.

The county had activated its Emergency Operations Center for the weekend, but decided to close it after receiving the latest update on the system's path.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman Brett Carr said the Mississippi National Guard was demobilized Saturday, and emergency operations were being scaled back.

Al Jazeera and the Associated Press