Deadly hurricane takes aim at United States

MIAMI (AFP) – Hurricane Ida took aim at the United States and oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday after causing flooding and landslides that killed 124 people in El Salvador.

Ida, which was downgraded to a category one storm early Monday, crossed the Gulf of Mexico after brushing past Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula though no casualties or damage was reported in the popular resort of Cancun.

A hurricane warning has been issued for the US Gulf coast from Mississippi Florida. A tropical storm warning was also in effect for sections of the Florida.

Forecasters at the US National Hurricane Center said the storm's maximum winds had decreased to 90 miles (150 kilometers) an hour, down from 105 miles (165 kilometers) per hour just a few hours before.

The tail-end of Ida coupled and a low pressure system in the Pacific caused heavy flooding in El Salvador that left 124 people dead, civil defense officials said. President Mauricio Funes declared a state of emergency.

Civil Defense chief Jorge Melendez added that "there could be more fatalities" in the eastern regions of Verapaz and Tepetitan.

In Tepetitan, landslides and overflowing rivers carried away some 30 houses, authorities said. Some residents had refused to leave their homes, according to mayor Ana Jovel.

In Verapaz, 71 miles (114 km) southeast of the capital San Salvador, officials reported a torrent of mud, rocks and tree trunks ripping through a section of the town, burying houses and cars.

A dozen bodies of victims were hauled from the devastation to a local chapel and covered with white sheets, caked with mud, as they awaited identification by relatives.

El Salvador had been on a state of alert since Thursday as heavy rains associated with Ida began to fall on the region, destroying an estimated 930 homes and leaving some 13,000 people homeless in Nicaragua.

On Saturday, Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega said his government hoped to make available up to 4.4 million dollars in aid for those affected by the storm.

At 0900 GMT, Ida was about 285 miles (460 km) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.

In the next 24 hours, Ida was projected to move north, increase in speed and then veer toward the northeast on Tuesday.

The center said the storm was expected to gradually weaken, but will likely remain a hurricane as it approached the US coast.

The NHC stressed the hurricane watch does not cover New Orleans, which was devastated in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.

Forecasters warned Ida could dump between three to five inches of rain in the Yucatan and western Cuba, with up to eight inches in some places, as well as storm surges and "large and destructive waves."

They also predicted heavy rains for the US Gulf coast and the Tennessee Valley as well as a "dangerous storm surge" that could raise water levels along the sea shore up to six feet (two meters).

This year, the Pacific's El Nino ocean-warming phenomenon has resulted in an especially calm Atlantic hurricane season -- a welcome respite for Caribbean and southeastern US residents still smarting from a 2008 pounding.

There have only been two other hurricanes in the 2009 Atlantic season, which runs from June 1 to November 30.