MIAMI, (Reuter):
United States crude producers evacuated oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday as the first tropical storm of the season aimed for the Gulf coast, and forecasters said it could be a hurricane by landfall during the weekend.
U.S. forecasters issued a hurricane watch from Louisiana to Florida, meaning hurricane conditions were possible within 36 hours in areas still recovering from last summer's devastating storms.
Outlying rain bands from the large but poorly defined Tropical Storm Arlene doused southern Florida, where a woman drowned while swimming in choppy seas, and also dumped heavy rains on western Cuba, the Cayman Islands and Central America.
Tropical storms become hurricanes when their sustained winds reach 74 mph (119 kph). While minimal Category 1 hurricanes with winds up to 95 mph (153 kph) do not generally cause damage to buildings, Category 5 storms boasting winds in excess of 155 mph (249 kph) can be catastrophic.
Arlene's emergence in the Caribbean got the six-month Atlantic hurricane season off to a rapid start, and underscored predictions that the 2005 storm season could be as busy as 2004's. The season began on June 1 and runs through November.
