Claudette spares St. Mary but kills 13 in Alabama

For the second time in the new hurricane season, Morgan City had a close call. This time, the storm that missed St. Mary was lethal.
Tropical Storm Claudette was predicted as late as Friday morning to land between Vermilion Bay and Morgan City. Instead, it came ashore just southwest of New Orleans about 4 a.m. Saturday.
The storm dumped up to 8 inches of rain in Slidell and was blamed for at least 13 deaths in Alabama, including 10 in a crash on a rain-slick interstate. Claudette spawned an EF2 tornado that ripped through the southwest Alabama city of Brewton.
Claudette was expected to regain tropical storm strength with winds of at least 39 mph as it blew off the Carolina coast Monday morning.
The system began to attract attention last week after it formed in the Bay of Campeche. As it gathered strength, the National Weather Service issued warnings of higher than normal tides and heavy rains for the Gulf Coast.
A tropical storm warning was issued at 4 p.m. Thursday for St. Mary Parish. The warning and a National Weather Service Facebook live stream were canceled Friday morning after it became clear the storm would track farther east.
The gauge at Harry P. Williams Memorial Airport near Patterson registered peak sustained winds of 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph 6-7 p.m. Friday. The rain gauge there recorded less than 1/10th-inch of rain after noon Friday.
The Atchafalaya River at Morgan City stayed below 4.5 feet, or 1.5 feet below the minor flood stage, through Friday and Saturday, showing little storm surge impact.
Claudette, which gained tropical storm strength just before making landfall, focused its fury farther east and north.
Officials were beginning to close the new Bayou Teche Flood Control Structure near Baldwin early Friday, said St. Mary Parish Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte.
"When they dropped the [tropical storm warning Friday morning], it became one of those situations where we said, 'Let's not do it,'" Matte said.
The structure is designed to stop storm surge from running up the Charenton Canal into the Bayou Teche.
But the district must balance the risk of storm surge against slower drainage in St. Mary when the gate is closed.
The National Weather Service reported that the tornado that hit Brewton about 7:30 a.m. Saturday had winds of 127 mph. The Escambia County Emergency Management Agency reported three injuries and conducted rescue operations through the day Saturday.
Ten people died in a multivehicle crash 35 miles south of Montgomery, Alabama, on Interstate 65. Eight of the people who died were in a van belonging to a home for neglected and abused children, the Associated Press reported.
Media accounts also say two people, a 24-year-old man and his 3-year-old son, died near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, when a tree limb fell on their house.
A woman died in DeKalb County, Alabama, when her vehicle ran off a road and into a rain-swollen creek.
Last month, a potential tropical system off the Texas coast led St. Mary officials to close flood gates in preparation for a potential strike. But the system headed northwest into Texas and caused little damage.