Tropical Storm Barry has picked up speed and
is expected to make landfall somewhere
between Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola,
Florida on Monday morning.
A hurricane warning has been issued for three states - Mississippi, Alabama and Florida - as storm winds increased speed to 60 miles per hour (100 kilometres per hour).
Meteorologists warn that the storm - now in the Gulf of Mexico - could cause flooding in parts of Alabama and Georgia.
Residents of the region have been laying sandbags, and Alabama emergency officials met on Sunday morning to monitor the storm's progress.
Preparations
There had been no evacuations ordered along the Gulf coast as of Sunday morning local time.
But a number of oil companies with offshore platforms evacuated thousands of personnel.
Barry is the second named tropical storm of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from the beginning of June through the end of November.
It does not qualify as a hurricane - a storm's winds must top 120 kmph (74 mph) for that.
But it has already dumped more than a foot of rain on Florida, causing flooding.
The storm forced the US space agency Nasa to delay a launch as it passed through southern Florida on the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
It had been heading towards Louisiana but has now turned eastwards, a source of relief to Louisiana residents.
But the state is still expected to get high tides, showers and thunderstorms.
The city of New Orleans, which is below sea
level, has closed 60 of its 72 floodgates.
-- Anonymous, August 05, 2001