Hurricane Ida aims at southern United States

MIAMI (AFP) – Hurricane Ida barreled across the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, disrupting area oil fields and taking aim at the US coastline between Louisiana and Florida.

The brunt of the category one storm was set to make landfall early Tuesday after brushing past Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, dumping heavy rain but causing no casualties or major damage in the popular resort of Cancun.

Authorities issued a hurricane warning for the US Gulf coast from eastern Mississippi to western Florida, telling residents to expect hurricane conditions and to rush to complete storm preparations.

A tropical storm warning and hurricane watch was in effect for eastern Louisiana -- including New Orleans, still recovering from the ravages of the powerful 2005 Hurricane Katrina -- meaning that hurricane conditions were possible in the coming 24 hours.

At 1200 GMT Ida was located about 380 kilometers (235 miles) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi river moving towards the northwest at 26 kilometers (16 miles per hour), the Miami-based National Hurricane Center reported.

"On the forecast track, Ida is expected to move across the Gulf of Mexico (Monday) and make landfall along the northern Gulf coast overnight," the NHC said.

Ida had lost strength, with winds dropping to near 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour.

The NHC however warned that Ida "could still be a hurricane when it approaches the Gulf coast."

The tail-end of Ida coupled with a low pressure system in the Pacific caused heavy flooding in El Salvador that killed 130 people, civil defense officials said Monday. President Mauricio Funes declared a state of emergency.

Landslides and overflowing rivers carried away homes, while a raging torrent ripped through an entire section of the town of Tepetitan. Some of the bodies were taken to a chapel and covered in mud-caked sheets.

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.

Torrential rain has also struck the neighboring nations of Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.

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.