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Source: Reuters -
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A weakened Tropical Storm Ida drenched the US Gulf Coast and oil installations, shutting down nearly 30% of Gulf energy production.
Ida was expected to strike the coast near Mobile, Alabama, early on Tuesday. At one time a Category 2 hurricane, Ida's threat eased as winds dropped to 112 km per hour. They were expected to decrease further as the storm neared land.
A US Coast Guard helicopter plucked two workers from a storm-damaged oil rig about 130 km south of New Orleans. Ida is blamed for 124 flood and mudslide deaths in El Salvador.
The Coast Guard closed the Port of Mobile, halting traffic on Mobile Bay, and authorities closed schools and government offices in coastal counties in Alabama and Florida, telling residents of flood-prone areas and mobile homes to evacuate.
Ida, which was downgraded to a tropical storm earlier on Monday, posed the first real storm threat of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season to Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas production, and forced some companies to shut down off-shore platforms and evacuate personnel.
The US Minerals Management Service said Ida had shut down 29.6% of Gulf oil production and 27.5% of gas output.
Energy markets have been hypersensitive to Gulf cyclones since
the devastating 2004 and 2005 seasons, when storms like Katrina
disrupted US output and sent pump prices soaring.
Although Ida's winds were still near hurricane force, most offshore
oil rigs in the Gulf won't see winds over 80 kph, said Jim
Rouiller, senior energy meteorologist at private forecaster
Planalytics Inc.
"I don't think there will be any damage (to oil rigs) and I think that by tomorrow it will be normal operations across the production region," Rouiller said.
Oil prices rise
Oil rose more than $2 to near $80 a barrel on Monday on fears of supply disruptions.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only US terminal capable of handling the largest tankers, stopped unloading ships due to stormy seas. And the Independence Hub, a major offshore natural gas processing facility, also was closed.
A quarter of US oil and 15% of its natural gas are produced from fields in the Gulf, and the coast is home to 40% of the nation's refining capacity.
At midnight GMT, the storm was about 60 km east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and was headed north at about 28 kph, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Hurricane warnings for the US Gulf Coast were discontinued. A tropical storm warning was in effect from Grand Isle, Louisiana, eastward to Aucilla River, Florida, meaning that tropical storm conditions are expected within 24 hours.
The warning area included New Orleans, which is still recovering from the devastation of Katrina.
In Mobile, Alabama, on the US Gulf Coast, Governor Bob Riley warned residents to be on guard, and declared a state of emergency for the state.
"At this point, we don't know how substantial this damage could be," Riley said. "We hope it continues to dissipate."
A few coastal Alabama businesses boarded up their windows, and shoppers stocked up on food but many residents and visitors seemed to dismiss the late-season storm as little more than a nuisance.
"Why do you think I waited until November to come down here?" asked Lisa Pouncey, a visitor from North Carolina.
Local authorities reported flooding from waves and storm surge at the developed west end of Dauphin Island, the barrier island off Mobile that was heavily damaged by Katrina in 2005.
Schools, beaches and parks closed in the Florida Panhandle, the same area hit in August by Tropical Storm Claudette, the only other cyclone to make a US landfall during the 2009 Atlantic season, one of the least active in a decade.
In El Salvador, rivers burst their banks and hillsides collapsed under rains triggered by Ida, cutting off parts of the mountainous interior from the rest of the nation.
The bulk of the Central American country's coffee is grown in
areas far from the worst effects of the flooding but the national
coffee association had no estimate of damage.
