Ida weakens to a tropical depression after landfall, then heads east

Ida sloshed ashore with rain and gusty winds before losing its tropical storm strength today, leaving weather-hardened Gulf Coast residents largely unscathed. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Ida’s center first touched land as a tropical storm on Dauphin Island before heading across Mobile Bay for the Alabama mainland. Top sustained winds dropped to near 35 mph and it became a tropical depression. Ida was moving northeast about 9 mph and expected to turn eastward to follow the Florida Panhandle. Tropical storm warnings were discontinued across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Forecasters said the storm had already spread most of its heavy rain onshore along the Gulf Coast ahead of Ida’s center. The storm had shut down nearly a third of oil and natural gas production in Gulf as oil companies evacuated workers ahead of Ida. Still, demand for energy is so low due to the economic downturn, energy prices barely budged today. Oil companies are expected to fly workers back out to platforms relatively quickly to restart operations.