Hurricane Lili loses its sting but forces NASA shutdown

LESS powerful but still dangerous Hurricane Lili pounded low-lying Louisiana coastal towns in the USA with heavy wind and rain on Thursday as it washed inland. Nearly a half-million people had been urged to flee.

The storm shut down the region’s resort towns, all 12 of Mississippi’s Gulf Coast casinos, NASA’s Mission Control in Houston and the nation’s biggest oil import terminal.

President Bush declared Louisiana a disaster area, setting the stage for a variety of federal aid. Federal Emergency Management Agency director Joe Allbaugh was on his way to Louisiana.

By daybreak, Lili had surprisingly weakened to a category two storm, with top winds of 100mph. At midday winds were down to 75mph, barely a hurricane. That was a big relief to forecasters and Gulf Coast residents who went through Tropical Storm Isidore just a week earlier and had braced for a Category four storm.

“I’m the happiest person on the face of the Earth to see this go down from a very powerful category four hurricane with sustained winds of over 140mph,” said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Centre in Miami.

The storm moved over Marsh Island about 8am then pressed north-ward to the mainland. Mayfield said it would be into north-western Mississippi by Friday morning. By noon Thursday, it was centred 30 miles west-northwest of New Iberia, headed inland at 16mph.

In New Iberia, Taylor Jackson, a 19-year-old University of Louisiana Monroe meteorology student, said he and three friends had driven down overnight in hope of seeing the eye.

“Actually, I was kind of hoping for the 145mph”, said Jackson, standing with his arms outstretched and letting the gusts catch his green windbreaker.

Mayfield said Lili would be down to a minimal tropical storm by the end of the day with 39mph winds.

Still, it was a powerful storm, with gusts as high as 92mph in New Iberia, sending pieces of metal flying into the air, felling tree limbs and blowing down a 50-ft sign at the Holiday Inn.

Hurricane winds extended about 70 miles from the eye and were predicted to stay that strong up to 100 miles inland. The entire area also was under tornado warning.

Had Lili remained a category four it could have been the worst hurricane to hit the Louisiana coast since at least the mid-1940s, with a life-threatening storm surge predicted at up to 25ft. Such a surge could have put 15ft of water in some towns and up to 8ft of water in Abbeville, 20 miles inland.

Scattered power failures affecting an estimated 137,000 utility customers were reported across the coast as the wind and rain increased. Phones were out in Lafayette Parish.

Lili arrived in Louisiana less than a week after Isidore dumped more than 20in of rain and caused $100m in flood damage.

About 143,000 people in Louisiana and 330,000 in Texas were advised to leave some for the second time in days. On Thursday the evacuation advisories in the Texas counties were lifted.