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Storm Edouard gains speed over Gulf of Mexico
Emergency teams were activated as residents along the Gulf of Mexico prepared to get hit with tropical weather for the second time in less than a month.
- AP
- Published: 23:25 August 4, 2008
New Orleans: Emergency teams were activated as residents along the Gulf of Mexico prepared to get hit with tropical weather for the second time in less than a month.
Tropical storm Edouard gained wind speed as it moved west yesterday and was expected to strengthen to a near-hurricane before making landfall somewhere in Texas or southwest Louisiana.
Warning in effect
A tropical storm warning was in effect from the mouth of the Mississippi River westward to Cameron, Louisiana. A hurricane watch was in effect from west of Intracoastal City, Louisiana, to Port O'Connor, Texas.
In the early morning yesterday Edouard had maximum sustained winds near 85km/h. The storm was centred about 300 kilometres southeast of Lafayette, Louisiana, and 475 kilometres east-southeast of Galveston, Texas.
It was moving west near 15 km/h, but was expected to turn to the west-northwest later yesterday. Forecasters said the warm waters of the Gulf provided the right conditions for the storm to intensify and approach hurricane strength with winds of 120 km/h or more.
Southeastern Texans prepared for Edouard's impact, while the victims farther down the Texas coast continued cleaning up the damage from Hurricane Dolly, which hit last month.
Krista Piferrer, a spokeswoman for Texas Governor Rick Perry, said Sunday that state emergency management officials were getting updates from the National Weather Service. Texas began activating emergency teams Sunday.
Many of the Gulf's offshore oil and natural gas drilling platforms sit in the storm's path. Shell Oil and ExxonMobil had not made any operational changes Sunday, but were watching the storm closely, the company's spokesmen said.
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