Tropical Storm Ida Downgraded; Moves Inland

Man walks along beach as wind from Tropical Storm Ida blows on coast near Gulf Shores, Alabama, 10 Nov 2009 Tropical Storm Ida has been downgraded to a tropical depression as itmoves through the southern United States, after churning through theCaribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico for more than a week.  

TheNational Hurricane Center in Miami says all storm warnings werediscontinued shortly after Ida came ashore Tuesday in in the southernU.S. state of Alabama.

The forecasters say Ida has lost allits tropical characteristics and its maximum sustained winds havediminished to 55 kilometers an hour. The winds are expected to weakenas remnants of the storm move slowly to the east.

Ida is stillexpected to produce heavy rains, with forecasters predicting it coulddrop as much as 20 centimeters of rain in some areas.  It is expectedto be absorbed by another weather front on Wednesday.
 
At itsearlier hurricane strength, Ida triggered floods and mudslides in ElSalvador that killed at least 130 people and forced thousands fromtheir homes.  

Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes has declareda national emergency.  The town of Verapaz was one of the hardest hitareas, with devastating flooding and mudslides.  Ida hit Nicaragua'sCaribbean coast Thursday as a low-level hurricane.

In the UnitedStates, the governors of the states of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana andMississippi had declared states of emergency, and several offshore oilwells shut down production in advance of the storm.  


Some information for this report was provided by AP.