A tropical storm is expected to form over the northern Gulf of Mexico by Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said, prompting the city of New Orleans to begin closing flood gates, officials to warn residents and oil companies to start shutting down offshore platforms and coastal operations.
The storm, which would be the first tropical system to strike the United States this hurricane season, was south of the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday, and was expected to gain strength as it moved west. If its sustained winds reach or exceed 39 miles an hour, making it officially a tropical storm, it will be given the name Barry. Its expected path would bring it ashore in Louisiana or East Texas sometime on Saturday.
The developing system was already causing widespread street flooding and power losses in New Orleans on Wednesday morning, with water spouts forming near the city.
The National Weather Service issued flash flood emergencies — its highest alert level for flooding — on Wednesday for Orleans and Jefferson parishes in Louisiana. The agency urged officials and residents along the Gulf Coast to review their hurricane plans, because of the threat of high winds and significant flooding from heavy rainfall and storm surge in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and East Texas.
The Gulf region faces the threat of tropical storms and hurricanes every summer, but there is an added complication this year. Heavy snowfall on the Great Plains over the winter and relentless rains in the spring have already swollen the region’s bayous and the Mississippi River and its tributaries, which drain to the Gulf. That has left the region’s levee systems with much less room than usual to absorb a storm surge before overtopping.
As a precaution, the Flood Protection Authority in New Orleans said it was closing flood gates and structures this week.
Regardless of the storm’s track, heavy rain is expected Wednesday across the region from the Texas coast to the Florida Panhandle. Severe thunderstorms are also possible Wednesday afternoon and evening. the Weather Service said, from the upper Great Lakes to the middle of the Mississippi Valley, including Chicago and St. Louis.
