Tropical Storm Karen continued its trudge toward the Gulf Coast on Saturday, threatening to bring heavy wind and rains despite losing some of its punch.
"The storm's weakened, and that's good news, but we're not out of the woods yet," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said. He warned of likely high winds, street flooding, and power outages.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said that forecasters discontinued tropical-storm watches across much of the Gulf Coast but that a portion of Louisiana remained under a warning. Karen stalled for several hours Saturday but began moving northward at about 2 m.p.h. by the late afternoon. It had maximum sustained winds of 40 m.p.h., making it a weak tropical storm. Its center was likely to come ashore Saturday night or Sunday morning. It was expected to weaken further and lose tropical-storm status on Sunday. - AP