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Weak Storm Comes Ashore Near Fort Walton Beach

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The Associated Press

Published: September 22, 2007

NEW ORLEANS - A tropical depression came ashore in the Florida Panhandle on Friday, sparing coastal Louisiana and Mississippi the first serious brush with tropical weather since two hurricanes laid waste to the area in 2005.

Forecasters downgraded the threat when the storm system moved ashore near Fort Walton Beach in the panhandle with top sustained winds of 35 mph.

'We expect it to move over land and weaken,' said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The weather service discontinued tropical storm warnings that had stretched from Apalachicola to the mouth of the Mississippi River, including metropolitan New Orleans.

'Everybody's dodging the proverbial bullet right now,' said Bob Wagner, a weather service meteorologist in Slidell, La.

Late Friday night, the system was moving northwest near 9 mph with maximum sustained winds near 30 mph. Two to 4 inches of rain was expected, and as much as 6 inches in some areas.

Isolated tornadoes were possible in southwestern Georgia, the Florida panhandle and southeastern Alabama throughout the night.

Residents throughout the region devastated by the hurricanes had kept a wary eye on the storm.

Sandy Pallon, 59, wasn't taking any chances. She lives in Biloxi, Miss., in a FEMA trailer park on a treeless gravel lot where an elementary school stood before Katrina.

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