Tropical storm Lee hits louisiana coast

Tropical Storm Lee crawled onto southern Louisiana's coast on Sunday as New Orleans prepared for one of the biggest tests of its flood defences since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005. The National Hurricane Centre said Lee's centre was about 200km west-southwest of New Orleans, with maximum sustained winds of 72kph at around 8:00am EDT (1200 GMT). Winds were expected to weaken gradually in the next couple of days and up to 51cm of rain was expected to fall on southeast Louisiana, the Miami-based centre said. In New Orleans, the storm recalled Hurricane Katrina, which flooded 80 per cent of the city, killed 1,500 people and caused more than $80 billion in damage to the popular tourist destination. Half the city lies below sea level and is protected by a system of levees and flood gates. The levees can process about 2.5cm of rainfall per hour and the storm's slow-moving nature remained a worry, officials said. There were isolated reports of flooding in roads and homes. No injuries or fatalities were reported. New Orleans officials were cautiously optimistic that the pump system would stay ahead of the rainfall, as residents awoke on Sunday to the arrival of a heavy band of rain. "There's not a whole lot of flooding anywhere, so things are OK," said Jerry Sneed, deputy mayor of public safety. "We're ready for the next round." On Saturday, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said stormy conditions could continue for the next 36 hours. "Don't go to sleep on this storm," he told residents. New Orleans is under a flash flood watch through Monday night, the National Weather Service said. Potential damage from wind gusts will also be a concern, it said. Lee's tidal surge could spur coastal flooding in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama before drenching a large swath of the Southeast and Appalachian regions next week. Storm winds were already pushing Gulf waters inland, slamming barriers in low-lying areas and prompting mandatory evacuations in the coastal communities of Lafitte, Crown Point and Barataria. In Mississippi, local governments were taking precautions as forecasters predicted tides could be 0.6 to 1.2 metres above normal. More than 60 per cent of US offshore oil production, all based in the Gulf of Mexico, and nearly 55 per cent of offshore gas production were shut as of Friday, according to the US government.