Tropical Storm Ida aims at southern United States

MIAMI (AFP) – Once-powerful Hurricane Ida, now weakened to tropical storm status, headed across the Gulf of Mexico on Monday taking aim at the US coastline between Louisiana and Florida.

The brunt of Ida 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.

Ida, which on Sunday was a category two hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, weakened to a tropical storm on Monday, officials at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

US forecasters proceeded to lift hurricane watches and warnings for the US coastline between Louisiana and Florida.

The storm's maximum sustained winds "continue to decrease and are now near 110 kilometers (70 miles) per hour, with higher gusts," the NHC said in its 1500 GMT advisory.

"Some additional weakening is expected (Monday) as Ida approaches the coast," it said.

At 1500 GMT, Ida was located about 300 kilometers (1855 miles) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi river moving towards the northwest at 28 kilometers (17 miles per hour), the NHC said.

"On the forecast track, the center of Ida is expected to make landfall along the northern Gulf (of Mexico) coast Tuesday morning," the NHC said.

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.