NEW ORLEANS?? Drainage pumps were doing their jobs and keeping water out of all but the lowest-lying spots in the New Orleans area on Sunday, but slow-moving Tropical Storm Lee was keeping residents on guard.
The vast, soggy storm system spent hours during the weekend hovering in the northernmost Gulf of Mexico. Its slow crawl to the north gave more time for its drenching rain bands to pelt a wide swath of vulnerable coastline, raising the flood threat.
By Sunday, at least 6 to 10 inches of rain had fallen in some spots along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts, and the National Weather Service warned there was a threat of extensive flooding and flash floods because of the storm's slow, meandering jog inland.
The rain bands were expected to head northward into the Tennessee Valley later in the week as forecasters warned that 10 to 15 inches of rain were possible along the central Gulf Coast and up to 20 inches in isolated spots.
Video: La. resident: Storm is 'just cleaning everything off' (on this page)National Hurricane Center specialist Robbie Berg said the flash flood threat could be more severe as the rains moves from the flatter Gulf region north into the rugged Appalachians.
Spin-off twisters
Closer to the Gulf, the water is "just going to sit there a couple of days," he said. "Up in the Appalachians you get more threat of flash floods ? so that's very similar to some of the stuff we saw in Vermont."
Vermont is still cleaning up and digging out dozens of communities that were damaged and isolated by heavy rain from Hurricane Irene last week that quickly overfilled mountain rivers.
At midday Sunday, there were scattered tornado warnings for spin-off twisters from Lee.
Lynn Burse, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, says the possible twister hit Lamar County, Miss., Sunday morning. No injuries or major damage was reported. Burse said drier air pivoting behind the system could increase the risk for tornadoes.
A possible tornado struck southern Mobile County in Alabama, snapping oak limbs, knocking out power and damaging at least one home. No injuries were reported, but the blast awoke Frank Ledbetter and ripped up the sign for his art gallery.
"It just got louder and louder and louder. I woke my wife up and said, 'It's a tornado.' We just dove into the closet in the bedroom," he said. "It was crazy."
Joe Zirlott was working the overnight shift at a Citgo Speedy Mart in the Bayley's Corner community when trash cans started flying, a sign blew away, the front door popped open and the lights went out.
"Everything got real hairy for about 10 minutes, then it eased up a little," he said.
At 11 a.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Lee's center was about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Morgan City. Maximum sustained winds were 45 mph (75 kph) as the storm headed to the north at 3 mph (5 kph).
Tropical storm warnings stretched from near the Louisiana-Texas state line to Destin, Fla.
To the east, coastal businesses were suffering. Alabama beaches that would normally be packed for the Labor Day holiday were largely empty, and rough seas closed the Port of Mobile. Mississippi's coastal casinos, however, were open and reporting brisk business.
In Mississippi, Harrison County officials said travel on U.S. Highway 90 had become hazardous because winds from Lee have pushed sand from beach onto the eastbound lanes and the rain has created a situation where drivers cannot see the roadway.
"This layer of sand has gotten up on the highway and you can't determine if you're on the road, up on the median or the curb," said emergency director Rupert Lacy.
Wet and windy conditions
Flooding in Hancock County left several roadways impassable, and the rain on parts of Interstate 10 at times has been so heavy that visibility was down to only a few feet.
Wet and windy conditions hovered over Alabama's Dauphin Island, a barrier island in the Gulf, but conditions weren't too threatening, Mayor Jeff Collier said. High surf caused some roads to flood, but all were still passable Saturday afternoon.
Precautions were taken to secure anything that could be swept away by wind or waves, and Labor Day concerts and other festivities were canceled.
"The weekend is literally a wash," Collier said. "It's really a shame that it happened on a holiday weekend."
Coffers were suffering at many coastal businesses that depend on a strong end-of-summer weekend. Alabama beaches that would normally be packed were largely empty, and rough seas closed the Port of Mobile. Mississippi's coastal casinos, however, were open and reporting brisk business.
The storm was denting offshore energy production. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said 237 oil and gas production platforms and 23 drilling rigs have been evacuated by Lee. The agency estimates that about 60 percent of the current oil production in the Gulf and almost 55 percent of the natural gas production has been shut in.
Flash flood warnings
In Lafourche Parish south of New Orleans, rain had been falling steadily since early Sunday. As tides pushed toward a peak, pressure on emergency officials continued.
"We're getting call after call about street flooding inside the levee system," Lafourche Parish spokesman Brennan Matherne said Sunday morning.
Rising water has closed several bridges over inland waterways and was lapping over highways in the area of Larose and Lockport in Lafourche, as tidal surges threatened several coastal areas and inland waterways on Sunday.
Lafourche is one of three parishes south of New Orleans that were under flash flood warnings Sunday. Several counties of coastal Mississippi also were under flash flood warning.
"For a while we got some false hope that we might be out of the woods, but we realized overnight we would get more rain," Matherne said.
A Saturday evening pause in the squalls allowed drainage pumps to catch up with the water in many areas.
In Grand Isle on the Louisiana coast, Mayor David Carmadelle reported that the sky actually cleared for a time in the evening.
"We could see stars for a while before the feeder bands resumed," he said.
By Sunday morning, meteorologists reported rainfall totals from the storm ranging from six inches in New Orleans' Upper Ninth Ward to more than 14 inches in Marrero just across the Mississippi River from the city.
In coastal areas and along many inland waterways, the storm has become a case study in tidal surge, with stiff winds pushing Gulf of Mexico tides three to five feet above normal on Sunday.
"Southeast winds are still pushing tides up the bayous and making some roads impassable," said Earl Eues, emergency management director for Terrebonne Parish southwest of New Orleans.
Jefferson Parish President John Young said bulldozers and dump trucks were at work to bolster barriers in communities that lie outside the levee system in the lower part of the parish next to New Orleans.
A mandatory evacuation was still in effect for Lafitte, Crown Point and Barataria.
"It's not a rain situation," he said. "It's the tidal surge," he said.
Young said Sunday morning he intends to continue pressuring state and federal authorities to fund some form of permanent flood protection in these areas.
"Lafitte and Grand Isle have been through so much, with four major hurricanes -- the BP oil disaster hit them right between the eyes -- and you wonder how many times people down there are going to have to deal with this," he said.
Young is hoping for a wind shift that would begin to push the water back out of lower Jefferson Parish communities.
Video: La. residents evacuate as Tropical Storm Lee approaches (on this page)But the impact of the surge was felt as far away as Mandeville, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, which is a massive estuary that connects to the Gulf through another waterway.
Water levels in the lake are running as much as three feet above normal, and with southerly winds gusting as high as 50 miles per hour, water has lapped over the seawall and flooded the Mandeville Lakefront.
The surge into Lake Pontchartrain has backed up water in all the streams that flow into the lake, causing flooding in businesses along the Tchefuncte River in Madisonville, among other spots.
Tides and rain are also taking a toll in St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans. Parish President Craig Taffaro said roads in the area of Delacroix and Hopedale are flooding periodically as rain bands pass through.
"For the most part we're managing pretty well," he said. "The problem is, the cumulative rainfall is mounting and the area is becoming saturated."
Taffaro said some trees have fallen as their roots loosened. And he worries that residents may begin to roam about when they shouldn't leave shelter.
"People are going to eventually get tired of sitting in their own homes and will want to venture out. We're hoping that is not coupled with some of these heavier bands that can bring street flooding in a matter of minutes," he said.
New Orleans was devastated in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, which flooded 80 percent of the city, killed 1,500 people and caused more than $80 billion in damage. Half of the city is below sea level, protected by levees and flood gates.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44390658/ns/weather/
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