Tropical Storm Lili more than likely headed to Gulf

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Posted 8:57AM on Monday, September 30, 2002

MIAMI - Tropical Storm Lili was moving toward the Gulf of Mexico Sunday and appeared likely to strike somewhere along the U.S. Gulf Coast later this week, forecasters said. It's too early to predict where Lili will come ashore, but coastal residents from Texas to Florida should be alert for a hurricane as early as Friday, said forecaster Stacy Stewart of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. At 5 p.m. EDT, Lili was about 15 miles east-northeast of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and had maximum sustained winds of about 60 mph, below the 74 mph minimum for a hurricane. The storm's winds had gotten slightly stronger Sunday afternoon, a trend that would continue over the next 24 hours, forecasters said. Lili was moving west at 5 mph and was expected to turn gradually northwest on Monday. The storm could strengthen to a hurricane Monday, Stewart said. On its current path, Lili would first affect the United States by Monday or Tuesday along the Florida Keys, Stewart said. But the storm's center was unlikely to pass over the island chain, which was expected to only receive minor rainfall and wind gusts below tropical storm strength, Stewart said. Later in the week, Lili could drift across the Gulf of Mexico toward Texas, Stewart said. But the storm also could turn to strike the northern U.S. Gulf Coast like Tropical Storm Isidore did last week, he added. Isidore came ashore in Louisiana on Thursday, flooding homes there and in Mississippi, Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and Tennessee. Earlier last week when Isidore was a hurricane, it pummeled Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Stewart said that if Lili follows Isidore's path, it could be an even bigger disaster for those states. "Lili could be much stronger wind-wise, but it's not as large as Isidore was," Stewart said. "If it happens to move across the places where heavy rain fell, you would see even more flooding."