Schools closed in New Orleans and parts of Alabama and residents of low-lying areas sought shelter today as a late-season tropical storm churned toward the Gulf Coast. After a quiet storm season, residents took the year’s first serious threat in stride. Ida started out as the third hurricane of this year’s Atlantic season, which ends Dec. 1, but it weakened to a tropical storm this morning, with maximum sustained winds near 70 mph. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it was not expected to strengthen again before making landfall along the Gulf Coast sometime Tuesday morning. Tropical storm warnings extended more than 200 miles across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Ida was located about 185 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and about 285 miles south-southwest of Pensacola. It was moving north-northwest near 17 mph. Click here for the NHC Web site.
Gulf Coast preps as Ida weakens to tropical storm
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