JACKSON, Miss. — Gov. Haley Barbour has declared a state of emergency in seven south Mississippi counties due to a tropical weather system in the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm is not a hurricane, but Barbour said residents should not underestimate it. He said it's expected to cause "tremendous flooding."

The declaration includes the following counties: George, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Marion, Pearl River and Stone.

A state of emergency frees up resources that can be used to prepare for a storm.

Around midday Friday, the center of the depression was nearly stationary off the Louisiana coast with top sustained winds of 39 mph. Its center was expected to make landfall in Louisiana over the weekend.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for coastal Mississippi. That warning extends from Pascagoula to Sabine Pass, Texas.

Gulf of Mexico storm threatens oil rigs
Oil companies began evacuating workers from rigs in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday ahead of what US forecasters said could be a powerful and dangerous storm.

"Right now we're giving it a 70 percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone sometime in the next 48 hours," said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the Miami-based National Hurricane Center.

"Where it will go and what it will do is too early to tell."

The weather service is urging residents across the Gulf Coast to keep an eye on the storm which will likely bring heavy rain and powerful winds and could also cause some flooding.

"Gosh knows the rain is needed from Texas to Florida," Feltgen told AFP. "This could be a godsend."

But it could spell a slowdown for oil operations in the Gulf, source of a substantial portion of US offshore crude.

ExxonMobil said it is evacuating approximately 140 employees and contractors from Gulf Coast offshore platforms expected to be in the path of the storm.

"Gross production of approximately 11,000 barrels per day of liquids and 60 million cubic feet per day of natural gas has been shut-in," the oil giant said in a statement.

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TROPICAL STORM LEE ADVISORY

2 p.m. update -- Depression strengthens into tropical storm lee south of the Louisiana coast. Heavy rainbands continue to spread across much of southeastern and south-central Louisiana.

Watches and warnings

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for:

• Pascagoula, Miss. westward to Sabine Pass, Texas, including the city of New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas.

48-hour outlook

At 2 p.m., the center of Tropical Storm Lee was located by an Air Force reserve reconnaissance aircraft and observations from oil rigs to be near latitude 27.4 north, lngitude 91.5 west.

Lee is drifting toward the northwest near 2 mph. A continued slow and possibly erratic motion toward the northwest or north is expected today and Saturday.

On the forecast track, the center of the tropical storm is expected to approach the coast of southern Louisiana during the weekend.

Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 40 mph, with higher gusts.  Gradual strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours. Wind gusts to near 60 mph are being reported on oil rigs north and east of the center at elevations of a few hundred feet above the ocean surface.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 200 miles, mainly northeast through southeast of the center.

The estimated minimum central pressure based on reports from nearby oil rigs and an air force reserve reconnaissance aircraft is 1003 mb or 29.62 inches.