Gulf Coast, Caribbean brace for tropical storms

By Russell McCulley

NEW ORLEANS July 5 (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Cindybuffeted the Louisiana coast with heavy rains and high winds onTuesday, while Caribbean nations posted hurricane watches aheadof a strengthening Tropical Storm Dennis.

It was the earliest date on record for four named tropicalstorms to have formed in the Atlantic basin, underscoring fearsthat the 2005 hurricane season could be an active one.

Cindy’s poorly-formed center was just 20 miles off of thecoastal town of Grand Isle, Louisiana, at 10 p.m. CDT,according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami andmoving north-northeast at 13 miles per hour (21 kph).

The hurricane center said Cindy had top sustained windsnear 70 mph, just below the 74 mph (119 kph) threshold for ahurricane.

Emergency officials reported some wind damage, including7,400 customers without electricity in New Orleans, but nothingmajor.

A tropical storm warning was in effect from Morgan City,Louisiana, to Destin, Florida, as Cindy was expected to turnmore northeasterly.

Authorities ordered campers and recreational vehicles toevacuate Grand Isle, which drew up to 20,000 tourists for theFourth of July holiday weekend and has just one road to themainland.

“We were very fortunate that the Fourth of July wasyesterday,” said Grand Isle Police Chief Euris DuBois.

In Plaquemines Parish, Homeland Security director Jesse St.Amant said three emergency shelters had opened, but only 22people showed up.

Cindy was likely to dump as much as 10 inches (25 cm) ofrain, forecasters said. Tornado warnings were issued for somecoastal Louisiana parishes and emergency workers in LafourcheParish readied sandbags as a precaution against flooding.

In the Gulf of Mexico, home to a quarter of U.S. oil andgas output, the federal Minerals Management Service said 3percent of daily production had been shut as energy companiesevacuated workers from offshore platforms.

Oil prices jumped in response, with U.S. oil prices closing84 cents higher at $59.59 a barrel after touching $60.10.

In the Caribbean, hurricane watches were posted on Jamaica,the Cayman Islands and in Haiti as Tropical Storm Dennisgathered strength.

Last year, about 6,000 Haitians died after severe floods inMay and September, the second disaster caused by a tropicalstorm.

By Tuesday night, Dennis had top winds of 50 mph and wasabout 345 miles southeast of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. It washeaded west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph) toward the Gulf ofMexico.

“Additional strengthening is forecast … and Dennis couldbecome a hurricane on Wednesday,” the hurricane center said.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to the endof November.

Colorado State University researcher William Gray haspredicted 15 storms and eight hurricanes this year, well abovethe long-term average of 9.6 storms and 5.9 hurricanes.

Fifteen named storms spawned nine hurricanes last year,four of which hit Florida in a six-week period, causing $45billion in damages.

(Additional reporting by Michael Christie and Jane Suttonin Miami, Jeff Franks in Houston, and Barbara Lewis and TimothyGardner in New York)