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After slamming the Gulf Coast and killing a child in Florida, Tropical Storm Gordon weakened on Wednesday morning, but it still represented a risk for millions of people.
Gordon touched down Tuesday night with strong winds and heavy rain just west of the border between Alabama and Mississippi, flooding Florida residents in Louisiana.
While winds have fallen from Gordon's 70-mph peak – a little less than the 74-kph winds for a storm to be qualified as a hurricane – the threat of rain and flash floods could last until Thursday, according to forecasters. About 4 million people were still under rapid surveillance on Wednesday morning.
"This system will eventually interact with another system and even more floods inland," said Al Roker of NBC News. "The winds are getting weaker, but rain will always be a big problem."
Gordon made landfall at 11:15 pm ET on Tuesday. A death was attributed to the storm when a child was killed after a tree fell on a mobile home in Pensacola, Florida on Tuesday night.
On Wednesday, at 8 pm (Eastern Time), the National Hurricane Center stated that Gordon had weakened to a tropical depression and that he was about 25 miles to the south-south East of Jackson, Mississippi. Maximum sustained winds had dropped to 35 mph.
But the worst was not necessarily over. The people of the southeast were preparing for more rain Wednesday morning.
Gordon is expected to dump 4 to 8 inches of rain over west Florida Panhandle, southwestern Alabama, south and central Mississippi, northeastern Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. Hurricane Center said. A flash flood is expected in some areas.
According to the hurricane center, tornadoes were also possible Wednesday or Wednesday night in Mississippi and western Alabama.
In Mobile, Alabama, 21,000 customers were without power by 7:00 am local time. according to at Alabama Power. In Mississippi, more than 3,000 power outages have been reported, according to Governor Phil Bryant.
Officials warned that power cuts could last.
"You talk about tropical storm winds coming down," said Greg Michel, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. "You are looking at the saturated soil, the trees are falling, the power outages in the long term may take a while."
Earlier, the cities of Mississippi, Gulfport, Long Beach and Biloxi, have ordered the evacuation of their ports and marinas, and the US Coast Guard has temporarily closed the ports of New Orleans. Mobile, Alabama; and Pascagoula, Mississippi.
The Cajun Navy, the collection of Louisiana volunteers who flock to tropical storms and hurricanes to assist, has been returning to Gulfport.
"They are our neighbors, and we know what is happening with the different fields and what to expect," Cajun Marine volunteer Clyde Cain told WDSU New Orleans. "So we are here to save first responders and be on call."
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