Category 1 Hurricane Nate speeds toward US Gulf Coast

NEW ORLEANS (AP):
Hurricane Nate pelted the central Gulf Coast with wind and rain Saturday as the fast-moving storm headed for an evening landfall somewhere along the coasts of southeastern Louisiana or Mississippi, threatening to inundate homes and businesses in vulnerable low-lying areas.

Nate was expected to pass to the east of New Orleans, sparing the city its most ferocious winds and storm surge. Cities along the Mississippi coast such as Gulfport and Biloxi were on high alert. Rain began falling on the region Saturday and forecasters called for 3 to 6 inches (7 to 15 centimetres) with as much as 10 inches (25 centimetres) in some isolated places.

Nate was a Category 1 storm with maximum winds of 90 mph (145 kph). Forecasters said it's possible that it could strengthen to a Category 2 with winds of at least 96 mph (155 kph) before it makes landfall.

"It's coming," Larry Bertron said as he and his wife prepared to leave their home in the Braithwaite community of vulnerable Plaquemines Parish in southeast Louisiana. The hurricane veterans lost one home to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and were leaving the home they rebuilt after Hurricane Isaac in 2012.

"If it floods again, this will be it. I can't live on promises," said Bertron, who complained that local officials haven't done enough to improve area levees.

Governors in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama declared states of emergency. The three states have been mostly spared during this hectic hurricane season.

"This is the worst hurricane that has impacted Mississippi since Hurricane Katrina," Mississippi Emergency Management Director Lee Smithson said Saturday. "Everyone needs to understand that, this is a significantly dangerous situation."