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Louisiana Declares Emergency as Gulf Storm Builds (Update2)
2010-08-11 09:22:36.140 GMT
(Updates position in second paragraph.)
By Alex Morales and Stuart Biggs
Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Governor Bobby Jindal declared a
state of emergency for Louisiana after a tropical depression in
the Gulf of Mexico was forecast to strengthen into a bigger
storm and slam into the southern state tomorrow.
The system sustained winds of 35 miles (55 kilometers) an
hour and was 290 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the
Mississippi River shortly before 7 a.m. Miami time, the National
Hurricane Center said on its website. The depression was heading
northwest at 10 mph and forecast to hit the coast late tomorrow
as a tropical storm, with winds exceeding 38 mph.
Impact is likely to be near the state boundary between
Louisiana and Mississippi, according to graphics on the
hurricane center website. A tropical storm warning extended from
Destin, Florida, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana. Officials said
the system will hamper BP Plc's efforts in the Gulf of Mexico to
clear up the worst oil slick in U.S. history.
"The forecast from the National Weather Service indicates
that the coastal parishes of Louisiana will be subjected to
tropical force conditions to such a degree that life and
property will be placed in jeopardy," Jindal said yesterday in
statement posted on the State of Louisiana website. He said the
declaration was justified "given the threatened tropical storm
conditions and complicating factors created by the oil spill."
If the depression's winds strengthen to at least 39 mph, it
will become the fourth named storm of the June 1 to Nov. 30
Atlantic Hurricane Season and be called Danielle.
Hurricane Katrina
The storm is expected to delay by two or three days BP's
efforts to plug the damaged Macondo well in the Gulf, Commander
Thad Allen said in a conference call with reporters yesterday.
Allen heads the Obama administration's efforts to stop and clean
up the oil spill.
The storm was predicted to bring as much as 8 inches (20
centimeters) of rain along the north and northeast coast of the
Gulf, home to about 31 percent of U.S. oil output.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused New Orleans levees to
fail, flooding the city and killing more than 1,800 people.
Together with Hurricane Rita, the two storms caused $91 billion
in damage, destroyed 115 energy platforms in the Gulf, and shut
down 95 percent of Gulf oil production and almost 30 percent of
U.S. refining capacity, according to government reports.
A repeat of Katrina would cause $6 billion to $9 billion in
damage to offshore platforms, rigs and wells, according to
models created by Risk Management Solutions Inc. of Newark,
California.
The hurricane center is also tracking two other systems.
One in the central Atlantic has been given a 70 percent chance
of organizing into a cyclone in the next two days, and a second
off northern South America has a 10 percent chance. A cyclone is
a rotating category of weather systems that includes
depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes.
For Related News and Information:
BP risk profile: BP/ LN <Equity> RSKC <GO>
Results by region: BP/ LN <Equity> FA GEO CHART <GO>
Balance sheet: BP/ LN <Equity> FA BS CHART <GO>
Top energy news: ETOP <GO>
Most-read weather news: MNI WEA <GO>
Oil top news: OTOP <GO>
Environment, renewable energy page: GREEN <GO>
--With assistance by Jim Polson in New York and Todd White in
Madrid. Editors: Alex Devine, Peter Langan.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Morales in London at +44-20-7330-7718 or
amorales2@bloomberg.net;
Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at +81-3-3201-3093
orsbiggs3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or landberg@bloomberg.net.
