A weakened Ida heads for US gulf, oil fields
Source: Agencies |
November 10, 2009, Tuesday
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HURRICANE Ida weakened to a Category 1 hurricane yesterday as it headed toward oil and gas facilities in the central Gulf of Mexico after killing at least 124 people in El Salvador following floods and mudslides.
Ida's top sustained winds fell to 145 kilometers per hour and was expected to weaken further in the next 24 hours, the US National Hurricane Center said.
But Ida was still expected to be a hurricane as it approached the US Gulf Coast last night or early today, bringing heavy rains. Ida was forecast to hit somewhere between Louisiana and Florida.
US oil companies were shutting production and evacuating workers from the Gulf in the face of Ida.
Oil rose more than US$1 to above US$78 a barrel yesterday on fears the hurricane would cut US oil and gas supplies. Several large producers shut down some oil and gas production as a precautionary measure.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only terminal in the US capable of handling the largest tankers, stopped unloading ships due to stormy seas.
A quarter of US oil and 15 percent of its natural gas are produced the Gulf and the coast is home to 40 percent of US refining capacity.
In El Salvador, rivers burst their banks and hillsides collapsed under relentless rains triggered by Ida's passage, cutting off parts of the mountainous interior from the rest of the country.
El Salvador's government said 124 people were killed as mudslides and floods swept away rudimentary houses.
The bulk of the Central American country's coffee is grown far from the worst affects of the flooding but the national coffee association had no estimate of potential damage to the harvest.
Ida's top sustained winds fell to 145 kilometers per hour and was expected to weaken further in the next 24 hours, the US National Hurricane Center said.
But Ida was still expected to be a hurricane as it approached the US Gulf Coast last night or early today, bringing heavy rains. Ida was forecast to hit somewhere between Louisiana and Florida.
US oil companies were shutting production and evacuating workers from the Gulf in the face of Ida.
Oil rose more than US$1 to above US$78 a barrel yesterday on fears the hurricane would cut US oil and gas supplies. Several large producers shut down some oil and gas production as a precautionary measure.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only terminal in the US capable of handling the largest tankers, stopped unloading ships due to stormy seas.
A quarter of US oil and 15 percent of its natural gas are produced the Gulf and the coast is home to 40 percent of US refining capacity.
In El Salvador, rivers burst their banks and hillsides collapsed under relentless rains triggered by Ida's passage, cutting off parts of the mountainous interior from the rest of the country.
El Salvador's government said 124 people were killed as mudslides and floods swept away rudimentary houses.
The bulk of the Central American country's coffee is grown far from the worst affects of the flooding but the national coffee association had no estimate of potential damage to the harvest.
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