Isidore on course for Gulf Coast

DAUPHIN ISLAND, Ala. -- Heavy rain deluged the Gulf Coast, flooding streets and forcing evacuations, as Tropical Storm Isidore moved closer to landfall Wednesday.\nAs much as 6 inches of rain had fallen in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida by noon Wednesday, and some coastal areas were already reporting wind gusts of around 30 mph.\nA hurricane watch stretched about 300 miles from Cameron, in southwestern Louisiana, to Pascagoula, Miss., and a tropical storm warning encompassed a wider area from High Island, Texas, to Destin, Fla.\nNew Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said the city expected 10 to 15 inches of rain, and winds of at least 40 miles per hour Wednesday night and Thursday. The eye of the storm was expected to hit land by Thursday morning along the Louisiana coast.\nAlready, scattered power outages caused by downed trees and limbs had affected more than 1,000 people in Louisiana overnight.\nAmid the wind and rain, Robert Gill attached big sheets of plywood to the glass front of a convenience store on Dauphin Island, a narrow coastal barrier south of Mobile.\n"It's easier to board up now than when the water comes up," he said.\nThe nearby beach was deserted except for a couple of daredevil surfers and a few people in a beach pavillion watching the lines of rain sweeping in from the Gulf and flooding Dauphin Island's streets.\nAt 11 a.m. EDT, Isidore was about 270 miles south of New Orleans and heading north at about 13 mph. Its sustained winds rose to 60 mph, with a slow strengthening expected over the next day.\nThe storm swept over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Monday, tearing off roofs, cutting communications and leaving at least two people dead. By Tuesday morning, it was back over open water in the Gulf of Mexico. Its sustained winds fell well below hurricane strength of 74 mph as the storm moved over land but then rose again to 60 mph in the Gulf.\nGrand Isle, an island resort community south of New Orleans, ordered a mandatory evacuation Tuesday. Other coastal communities followed with either mandatory or voluntary evacuations, depending on their proximity to the storm's projected track.\n"We've already been experiencing some severe thunderstorms," Grand Isle councilman Ray Santiny said. "We've had almost gale-force winds, 40 to 50 miles an hour, in some of those thunderstorms."\nThe Louisiana Superdome was opened early Wednesday for handicapped residents with mobility problems and other special needs. Most schools closed across the region.\nCivil defense agencies in the Mississippi counties of Hancock and Jackson issued mandatory evacuation orders for low-lying areas. The Mississippi coast's usually busy gambling industry was also told to close temporarily, and Northrup Grumman's shipyard facilities in Pascagoula and Gulfport were shutting down.\nNew Orleans, the nation's biggest city with land below sea level, prepared for heavy rain by closing flood walls, putting all pumping stations in full operation, sandbagging roads near the water and asking hospitals to delay elective surgeries.\nAt Louis Armstrong International Airport, officials warned cancellations would be a possibility beginning Wednesday afternoon.\nThe chief concern in New Orleans was rainfall. Harold Gorman of the city's Sewerage and Water Board said all pumping stations already were in full operation. He said the intensity of rainfall, as much as the amount, was key to whether city streets would flood.\n"If six inches came in 24 hours, it wouldn't be a problem," Gorman said. "If it came in an hour or two, it would be a serious problem."\nEven a weakened Isidore was bad for business in the city's French Quarter. Beer trucks unloaded in front of empty bars on Tuesday. T-shirt and bead shops sold mostly ponchos with "Bourbon Street" printed on them.\n"Business is dead," complained Mike Shoghary, manager of the Dixieland Factory Outlet on Bourbon.\nRain was falling steadily in the western Florida Panhandle, causing minor street flooding in Escambia County and rough surf and rip currents.\nA larger worry is possible river flooding that can occur days after a storm passes as water drains off the land, said Escambia County Emergency Management Chief Michael Hardin.\nEmergency officials in Florida also were watching another tropical storm, Lili, which has killed three people in the Caribbean and could strike the southern part of the state over the weekend.