Edouard is the fifth tropical storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season. Thus far it has maximum sustained winds near 65 mph, and has a 25% chance of reaching 74 mph – hurricane speeds – before it hits near or over the upper Texas or southwestern Louisiana coasts, said the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Forecasters say the storm may result in up to five inches of rain in coastal regions of Louisiana, and up to 10 inches in some parts of southeast Texas. Isolated tornadoes are also a possibility.
A state of emergency has been declared by Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared 17 counties disaster areas and mobilized about 1,200 National Guard troops. In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a statewide emergency.
Edouard, the second named storm to threaten oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico so far this year, shut down a huge offshore oil port, closed the Houston Ship Channel and prompted several offshore operators including Chevron Corp and Shell Oil to evacuate staff from their platforms. Nevertheless, energy companies are reporting negligible slowdown in oil production.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only deep-water U.S. oil port and a major conduit for the country's crude oil imports, said high waves and winds caused it to temporarily suspended offloading oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico.
Several strong hurricanes that took place in 2004 and 2005, including the infamous Hurricane Katrina, were responsible for toppling oil rigs and severing pipelines in the Gulf.
Hurricane season began on June 1. The six-month season has already seen two of this year's storms strengthen into hurricanes. July 2008 was the third most active July for storms since records began in 1851.