Hurricane Ida weakens after killing 124

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Hurricane Ida weakens after killing 124 (9/11)

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HOUSTON (Reuters) - Hurricane Ida weakened further as it headed towards oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and was forecast to make landfall overnight on the U.S. Gulf Coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said on Monday.

Ida was expected to hit somewhere between Louisiana and Florida. Earlier, Ida triggered floods and mudslides that killed 124 people in El Salvador.

Ida's top sustained winds dropped to 80 miles per hour (130 kph) but could still be a hurricane when it approaches the Gulf Coast later on Monday accompanied by heavy rains. Ida was downgraded early on Monday from a Category 2 to a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest rank on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale.

U.S. oil companies were shutting production and evacuating workers from the Gulf in the face of Ida. Oil rose more than $1 to above $78 a barrel on Monday on fears the hurricane would cut U.S. oil and gas supplies.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only terminal in the United States capable of handling the largest tankers, stopped unloading ships due to stormy seas.

A quarter of U.S. oil and 15 percent of its natural gas are produced from fields in the Gulf and the coast is home to 40 percent of the nation's refining capacity.

In El Salvador, rivers burst their banks and hillsides collapsed under relentless rains triggered by Ida's passage, cutting off parts of the mountainous interior from the rest of the country.

The bulk of the Central American country's coffee is grown in areas far from the worst affects of the flooding but the national coffee association had no estimate of potential damage to the harvest.

LOUISIANA STATE OF EMERGENCY

The Miami-based hurricane centre set a hurricane warning from Pascagoula, Mississippi, to Indian Pass, Florida, meaning hurricane conditions could be expected in the area within 24 hours.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, including the city of New Orleans, which is still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency on Sunday, allowing the government to mobilise troops and rescue workers.

If Ida makes landfall in Louisiana, it would be the first storm to strike the state since Hurricane Gustav came ashore in September 2008.

At 7 a.m. EST (12 p.m. British time), the centre of Ida was about 235 miles (380 km) south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and 330 miles (535 km) south-southwest of Pensacola, Florida. Ida was expected to turn towards the north and move more quickly towards the Gulf Coast before veering off to the northeast on Tuesday.

Ida swept past the Mexican resort of Cancun on Sunday, inflicting little damage. Ida first became a hurricane on Thursday off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, where heavy rains forced more than 5,000 people into shelters.

The country's coffee crop was not directly affected by the storm, according to the local coffee council.

(Additional reporting by Jose Cortazar and Michael O'Boyle in Cancun, Nelson Renteria in San Salvador, Ivan Castro in Managua and Erwin Seba in Houston; Writing by Peter Cooney; Editing by Will Dunham)

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