Gulf Coast preps as Ida weakens to tropical storm

PENSACOLA, Fla. — Schools closed, people in low-lying areas sought shelter and the governors of Florida and Alabama declared states of emergency Monday as a rare late-season tropical storm churned toward the Gulf Coast.

After a quiet Atlantic storm season, residents from Louisiana east to Florida took the year's first serious threat in stride.

"Nobody has gotten into panic mode," said Bobbie Buerger, who owns a general store on Dauphin Island, south of Mobile, Ala. She said residents were buying a few supplies, such as candles and bread, so they could ride out the storm in their homes.

Earlier, heavy rain in Ida's wake triggered flooding and landslides in El Salvador that killed 134 people. One mudslide covered the town of Verapaz, about 30 miles outside the capital, San Salvador, before dawn Sunday.

Ida started out as the third hurricane of this year's Atlantic season, which ends Dec. 1, but it weakened to a tropical storm Monday, with maximum sustained winds near 70 mph (110 kph). The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it was expected to weaken further before making landfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast sometime Tuesday morning. Rain had already started falling on the coast Monday afternoon, and up to 8 inches was possible in some places.

Tropical storm warnings were in effect across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Residents elsewhere in the Southeast braced for heavy rain. In north Georgia, which saw historic flooding in September, forecasters said up to 4 more inches could soak the already-saturated ground as Ida moved across the state.

There were no plans for mandatory evacuations, but authorities in some coastal areas were opening shelters and encouraging people near the water or in mobile homes to leave.

Monday afternoon, Ida was located about 115 miles (185 km) south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and about 220 miles (350 km) south-southwest of Pensacola. It was moving north-northwest near 18 mph (30 kph).

On Pensacola Beach, Glenn Wickham stood on the roof of a three-story house, securing metal shutters on a window as his crew moved furniture from the lower stories to the upper floors. They were hired by a homeowner who wasn't taking any chances after his property was one of the few to survive Hurricane Ivan, which came ashore in 2004 as a Category 3 storm.

"We doing all this out of an abundance of caution — I really don't think this is going to be anything," Wickham said.

Dan Conell took shelter in a beach pavilion so he could watch the churning Gulf water as heavy rain fell. The Kansas City, Mo., resident, in town for a conference, was seeing the ocean for the first time.