Oil Rig Workers and Tourists Flee Tropical Storm Off Louisiana Coast

NEW ORLEANS â€”  Tropical Storm Beryl hovered off the Louisiana coast Monday, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of oil rig workers in the Gulf of Mexico and driving vacationers away from rain-drenched coastal resorts.

Beryl was upgraded Monday from a tropical depression after its winds strengthened, reaching a sustained speed of 50 m.p.h., with higher gusts in squalls up to 75 miles from the center.

The storm formed inland over Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans and strengthened as it drifted closer to the warm Gulf of Mexico.

“It’s highly unusual for depressions to form over land. Most of the time they get their start way out in the middle of the ocean,� said Jim Gross, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

By evening, the storm’s center was virtually stationary about 65 miles southeast of New Orleans.

National Weather Service forecasters said the storm was expected to start heading southwest by mid-morning today and could strengthen.

Residents of south Louisiana, especially in coastal communities, were warned to prepare for flooding from high tides.

Tropical storm warnings were posted from Morgan City, La., to Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle. A small vessel warning was in effect from Port O’Connor, Tex., to Pensacola.

Chevron spokesman Jonathan Lifa said that hundreds of company workers were removed Monday by boat and helicopter from facilities at Venice and Leeville deep in Plaquemines Parish and at Morgan City.

Rain from Beryl battered coastal areas Monday in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, and some tourists cut their vacations short. Forecasters said the storm could bring as much as 5 inches of rain along the coast in the next few days.

Coastal residents were urged to closely monitor weather service advisories.