Cancún, Mexico: Hurricane Nate gathered strength Saturday as it swept towards the US Gulf Coast after dumping rain heavy that killed at least 28 people in Central America.
New Orleans, which was ravaged by deadly Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and other US Gulf coast cities were under a hurricane warning. President Donald Trump issued an emergency declaration allowing federal emergency aid to be sent to help mitigate the storm’s impact.
Nate’s centre was located 395 kilometres south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said at 1200 GMT.
Its winds swirled at 135 kilometres per hour, making it a Category One hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.
Nate was moving towards the northwest rapidly at 35 kilometres per hour, and is set to make landfall along the central US Gulf Coast late Saturday.
“The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” the NHC said.
The water was expected to peak at up to 2.7 metres above ground in some areas.
New Orleans issued a mandatory curfew for Saturday from 6 00 pm (2300 GMT), and mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders were issued for certain low-lying areas.
Swells expected to affect northwestern Caribbean land over the weekend “are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions,” according to US forecasters.
In Mexico, authorities cancelled school in seven coastal towns and declared an orange alert for the northern half of Quintana Roo state.
Luis Felipe Puente, Mexico’s national coordinator of Civil Protection, recommended “avoiding aquatic, touristic and recreational activities” in Quintana Roo. “Our greatest threat... is not necessarily rain, but strong winds and storm surge,” said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.
Some offshore oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were evacuated ahead of the storm’s advance.
— AFP
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