Hurricane Lili moves to US coast

NEW IBERIA, La. -- Packing 110 mph wind, Hurricane Lili gained strength and churned Wednesday toward the Gulf Coast, where residents braced for the second major storm in a week.\nAbout 330,000 people in Texas' Jefferson and Orange counties were told to evacuate early Wednesday after a tidal surge of more than 9 feet was expected to pound the surf.\nEvacuations were ordered Wednesday along the low-lying areas of southwest Louisiana.\nCoastal residents of Louisiana also scrambled for higher ground and barricaded their homes and businesses, and Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster declared a state of emergency, less than a week after Tropical Storm Isidore blew through the region. That storm flooded hundreds of homes and caused an estimated $100 million in damage.\n"We're as ready as we can be," Foster said early Wednesday. "But you're never fully prepared. There's only so much you can do."\nLili, which was expected to make landfall Thursday, entered the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday as a Category 2 hurricane with wind of 110 mph. Forecasters said it could strengthen to Category 3, with wind up to 130 mph, on Wednesday.\nEarlier, Lili barreled through the Caribbean, killing seven people in Jamaica and St. Vincent and driving tens of thousands of Cubans from their homes.\nCompared to Isidore, "Lili will have greater impact, but in a smaller area," Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, said Wednesday on CBS' "Early Show." "It's not as large as Isidore, but it is much more powerful."\nForecasts showed Lili heading for the middle of Louisiana's coast, and officials warned that areas could be inundated with as much as 20 feet of water.\n"It would take us under water, it would be disastrous," said Ruth Fontenot, mayor of New Iberia, a historic Cajun town of 35,000 about 10 miles from Vermilion Bay and 25 miles from the Gulf.\nAt nearby Avery Island, the home of Tabasco hot pepper sauce, McIlhenny Co. officials prepared for a possible shut down of bottling operations.\n"We boarded up and battened things down," said Tony Simmons, executive vice president and a great-great-grandson of Tabasco inventor Edmund McIlhenny.\n"We're bottling right now, and we're not anticipating anyone running out of Tabasco," Simmons said Tuesday afternoon. Avery Island is the company's only bottling plant.\nAt 11 a.m. EDT, Lili was about 365 miles south-southeast of New Orleans.\nA hurricane watch was declared for the Gulf Coast from northern Texas to the mouth of the Mississippi River, meaning hurricane conditions were possible within 36 hours. A tropical storm watch was in effect from the Mississippi River to Pascagoula, Miss.\nIn Texas, officials advised the 250,000 residents of the Beaumont-Port Arthur area and 80,000 residents of neighboring Orange County to head inland early Wednesday.\n"The latest forecasts still have this thing running down our throat," Beaumont Mayor Evelyn Lord said late Tuesday.\nNASA postponed Wednesday's shuttle launch because of the storm. The space agency said it did not want to take a chance of launching Atlantis from Cape Canaveral, Fla., only to have the hurricane bear down on Houston, home to Mission Control. NASA said Thursday would be the earliest the launch could occur.\nIn Grand Isle, a vulnerable barrier island south of New Orleans, workers raced to repair a 2,500-foot beach levee washed out by Isidore. Officials ordered a mandatory evacuation beginning Wednesday morning.\nNearby, Port Fourchon was also shutting down and evacuating. Officials estimate about 16 percent of the nation's crude oil and 17 percent of the nation's natural gas comes from rigs and platforms that require access to the port.\nLOOP, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port about 20 miles off the coast, also closed. It is the biggest U.S. crude oil import terminal, handling about 1 million barrels of crude a day, or 11 percent of U.S. imports.\nThe U.S. Minerals Management Service said 121 platforms and 42 rigs had been evacuated.\nNew Orleans officials mulled over possible evacuation problems.\nOfficials talked about closing Interstate 10, a major evacuation route out of the city, if the highway floods as it did during Isidore.\nMany Gulf Coast residents had nothing on their minds but getting away from Lili.\nTony Buffington, a Mormon leader in New Iberia, said he and his wife called more than 100 church members to tell them to get out. The Buffingtons planned to leave with their family and friends.\n"I'm packing everything tonight. I packed my mom's house today. And I'm going to sit up all night and watch what happens to the hurricane on my computer," Cindy Buffington said.\n___\nOn the Net:\nHurricane Center: www.nhc.noaa.gov