Gulf Coast Hunkers Down for Hurricane

Workers were evacuated from offshore drilling rigs along the Gulf Coast and thousands of residents of coastal Louisiana left for higher ground Tuesday as Hurricane Opal churned toward them.

Gusty thunderstorms were moving in Tuesday night, when Opal was centered about 325 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River, with maximum sustained wind about 100 m.p.h.

The hurricane had caused coastal flooding in Texas and killed at least 10 people in Mexico.

Forecasters believed that Opal’s likely path would bring it southeast of Louisiana this afternoon and then onto the Florida Panhandle near Pensacola about midnight, said Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

“An abundance of caution is needed,” said Clyde Giordono, president of Plaquemines Parish, southeast of New Orleans. Parish schools closed at noon.

On Grand Isle, Louisiana’s only inhabited barrier island, Mayor Andy Valance ordered mandatory evacuations of about 1,000 residents early Tuesday.

Offshore natural gas operators rushed to shut down production and evacuate workers from platforms. A hurricane watch extended from Morgan City, La., eastward across the Florida Panhandle.