| ABC News | - |
Karen
lost more of its punch late Saturday and fell below tropical-storm
status while stalling off the Louisiana coast. Even as a tropical
depression with top sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph), the system
threatened to bring strong wind and heavy rain to ...
Karen Weakens to Depression off La. Coast
Karen lost more of its punch late Saturday and fell below tropical-storm status while stalling off the Louisiana coast.
Even as a tropical depression with top sustained winds of 35 mph (55
kph), the system threatened to bring strong wind and heavy rain to
vulnerable low-lying areas. However, all watches and warnings were
discontinued along the Gulf Coast.
The National Weather Service said Saturday evening that the system was
stationary but expected to move across or near the southeast Louisiana
coast late Saturday or early Sunday, then track eastward and lose
strength. It spent Saturday either stalled or moving slowly.
Karen was centered about 185 miles (295 km) southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Forecasters expected for there to be little change in the system's
strength over the next 24 hours and that it would turn into a remnant
Monday.
The National Weather Service said storm surges of 1-to-3 feet were
possible along the southeast Louisiana and Mississippi coast, with
rainfall accumulations of up to 3 inches — 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, which would remain open Saturday.
They gathered in an auditorium where they rested on cots, watched for
weather updates on TV 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,"
Mayor Timothy Kerner said. "It looks like it might come up another foot
or two, but I think we're going to be OK."
Coastal authorities closed flood gates along waterways that could be
affected by tides driven by the storm. In New Orleans, the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers continued closing barriers designed to keep surge out
of the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal — 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, port 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 "nonevent" for the region.
The county had activated its Emergency Operations Center for the
weekend, but decided to close it after getting the latest update on the
storm's path. Hahn said he and other officials were relieved the storm
wasn't more developed. But Hahn still urged residents to pay attention
to weather updates and to be prepared for any emergency.
"Complacency is always a concern, but we aren't seeing that," he said,
adding that most Panhandle residents take tropical weather seriously
because of the large storms that have struck the region in the past.
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman Brett Carr said the
Mississippi National Guard was demobilized Saturday and emergency
operations were being scaled back.
As Karen churned the Gulf, some people along the coast couldn't resist the draw of beaches.
Ray and Lynn Walls of Shepherdsville, Ky., had a sunny beach to
themselves Saturday on the western tip of Dauphin Island, Ala. Waves
pounded the seawall protecting nearby homes, and a locked gate blocked
the entrance to a public beach that was closed because of Karen.
In Biloxi, Miss., families played on the beach, joggers trotted along
the waterfront and a steady stream of cars passed on the main beach
front road.
————
Associated Press reporters Stacey Plaisance in Braithwaite, La.; Melissa
Nelson in Pensacola, Fla.; Tony Winton in Miami; Holbrook Mohr in
Biloxi, Miss.; and Jay Reeves in Dauphin Island, Ala., contributed to
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