NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans, devastated by Hurricane Katrina six years ago, faced a new threat Saturday from Tropical Storm Lee, which was set to challenge the city's flood defenses with an onslaught of heavy rain.
The storm was expected to bring up to 20 inches of rain to southeast Louisiana over the next few days, including to low-lying New Orleans, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Lee's tidal surge could spur coastal flooding in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama before drenching a large swath of the Southeast and Appalachian regions next week.
The slow-moving storm has bedeviled forecasters. Lee resumed its slow march northward toward the marshy Louisiana coast at 4 miles , after stalling for several hours Saturday afternoon.
The center of Lee was 60 miles west-southwest of Morgan City, with maximum winds of 60 mph, the hurricane center said. Lee's winds were expected to stay below the 74-mph threshold of hurricane strength as the storm crawls ashore Saturday evening.
New Orleans' extensive levee system has pumped away about 8 inches of rain so far, with isolated reports of flooding in roads and homes. The system can process about 1 inch of rainfall per hour, but the storm's slow-moving nature remained a worry, officials said.
"We are not out of the woods," Mayor Mitch Landrieu told a news briefing, noting that hurricane-force gusts had been logged at City Hall. "This storm is moving painfully slow."
The prospect of flooding in low-lying New Orleans evoked memories of Hurricane Katrina, which flooded 80 percent of the city, killed 1,500 people and caused more than $80 billion in damage in 2005. Half the city lies below sea level and is protected by a system of levees and flood gates.
The storm dampened business at Mandina's, a popular restaurant on Canal Street that was rebuilt after being nearly destroyed by Katrina's floodwaters.
"Ever since Katrina it seems like the weather people are a little over-excited about the bad weather," restaurant manager Martial Voitier said. "We had a terrible dinner last night, and lunch is not looking any better."
No injuries or deaths were reported in Louisiana, but rough waters off Galveston Island in Texas led to the drowning death of a 34-year-old man, an island official said.
The storm could also bring heavy rains and flooding to Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle as it creeps eastward over the U.S. Labor Day holiday weekend.
EVACUATIONS
Low-lying parishes around New Orleans saw rising waters, which covered some roadways in Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes, but no homes or businesses were threatened. Some residents in Jefferson Parish were ordered to evacuate.
Periodic breaks in the rainfall allowed the city's giant pumps to catch up with the water flow and clear standing water, said Jefferson Parish President John Young.
"Everything looks good," Young told local television. "The pumps are keeping up with the water. We are getting some street flooding."
About 35,000 houses were without electrical power due to the storm, according to utility Entergy Corp.
Over 60 percent of U.S. offshore oil production, all based in the Gulf of Mexico, and nearly 55 percent of offshore gas production were shut as of Friday, according to the U.S. government. Most of that output should quickly return once the storm passes.
Major offshore producers like Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corpand BP Plcshut down platforms and evacuated staff earlier this week.
Shell and Anadarko Petroleum Corp started to return workers to offshore platforms in the western Gulf of Mexico Saturday.
Low-lying refineries in Louisiana that collectively account for 12 percent of U.S. refining capacity were watching the storm closely, but reported no disruptions.
ConocoPhillips' 247,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Alliance, Louisiana, 25 miles south of New Orleans, was operating normally as Lee moved overhead, the company said.
In the open Atlantic, Hurricane Katia weakened to a tropical storm Saturday and was forecast to wobble back and forth between hurricane and tropical storm strength far from land, the hurricane center said. (Additional reporting by Erwin Seba and Deborah Quinn Henselin Houston and Jane Sutton in Miami;Writing by Chris Baltimore; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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