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Cristobal is Now a Depression, Moving North Toward Canada

Associated Press

   NEW ORLEANS - Tropical Storm Cristobal weakened into a depression early
   Monday after inundating coastal Louisiana and ginning up dangerous
   weather along most of the U.S. Gulf Coast, sending waves crashing over
   Mississippi beaches, swamping parts of an Alabama island town and
   spawning a tornado in Florida.

   Heavy rainfall and a storm surge continued posing a threat across a
   wide area of the coast after Cristobal made landfall Sunday afternoon
   with 85-kph winds between the mouth of the Mississippi River and the
   since-evacuated barrier island resort community of Grand Isle.

   At 5 a.m. EDT Monday, the storm was centered about 65 kilometers north
   of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with top winds of 55 kmh, and moving
   north-northwest at 17 kmh. Cristobal's remnants could be a rainmaker
   for days. Its forecast path takes it into Arkansas and Missouri by
   Tuesday, then through Illinois and Wisconsin to the Great Lakes.

   "It's very efficient, very tropical rainfall," National Hurricane
   Center Director Ken Graham said in a Facebook video. "It rains a whole
   bunch real quick."

   Forecasters said up to 30 centimeters of rain could fall in some areas.
   The weather service warned that the rain would contribute to rivers
   flooding on the central Gulf Coast and up into the Mississippi Valley,
   posing a new test of the beleaguered pumping system designed to drain
   flood waters from the streets of New Orleans.

   Coastal Mississippi news outlets reported stalled cars and trucks as
   flood waters inundated beaches and crashed over highways. On the City
   of Biloxi Facebook page, officials said emergency workers helped dozens
   of motorists through flood waters, mostly on U.S. 90 running along the
   coast.

   In Alabama, the bridge linking the mainland to Dauphin Island was
   closed much of Sunday. Police and state transportation department
   vehicles led convoys of motorists to and from the island when breaks in
   the weather permitted.

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