Forecasters expect the center of Karen to be near the southeast Louisiana coast on Saturday night when they say there is a slight chance of strengthening.
Karen began losing its punch after a busy day of preparations along the Gulf Coast for the storm a late arriving worry in what had been a slow hurricane season in the U.S. Karen would be the second named storm to make landfall in the U.S. the first since Tropical Storm Andrea hit Florida in June.
Pickups hauling boat trailers and flatbed trucks laden with crab traps exited vulnerable low lying areas of southeast Louisiana on Friday.
Also Alabama joined Louisiana Mississippi and Florida in declaring a state of emergency. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Interior Department recalled workers furloughed because of the government shutdown to deal with the storm and help state and local agencies.
Late Friday the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported that Karen was located about 205 miles (330 kilometers) south southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River and was on the move again heading north northwest at 7 mph (11 kph).
We are confident on a northeastward turn. Just not exactly sure where or when that turn will occur Rick Knabb director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami said earlier Friday.
Conditions were not ripe for the storm s strengthening. A hurricane watch was dropped Friday afternoon. Late Friday a tropical storm warning was in effect from Morgan City La. to the mouth of the Pearl River which forms part of the border between Louisiana and Mississippi. A tropical storm watch covered the New Orleans area as well as a stretch from east of the mouth of the Pearl River to Indian Pass Fla.
Forecasters said late Friday that Karen was expected to dump 1 to 3 inches of rain on the central Gulf Coast and southeastern United States by Monday night less than originally predicted with up to 6 inches in isolated parts.
A westward tick in the earlier forecast tracks prompted officials in Plaquemines Parish La. an area inundated last year by slow moving Hurricane Isaac in 2012 to order mandatory evacuations mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River. The parish home to oil field service businesses and fishing marinas juts out into the Gulf of Mexico from the state s southeastern tip.
The jog to the west has got us concerned that wind will be piling water on the east bank levees said Guy Laigast head of emergency operations in the parish. Overtopping was not expected but the evacuations were ordered as a precaution he said.
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