Tropical storm to hit Louisiana, Florida

NEW ORLEANS -- A large storm system churning in the Gulf of Mexico grew Friday into Tropical Storm Lee, beginning a Labor Day weekend-long assault that could bring up to 20 inches of rain in some spots from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.

The storm was expected to make landfall on the central Louisiana coast late Saturday and turn east toward New Orleans, where it would provide the biggest test of rebuilt levees since Hurricane Gustav struck on Labor Day 2008.

Residents who have survived hurricanes such as Betsy, Camille and Katrina didn't expect Lee to live up to that legacy.

"It's a lot of rain. It's nothing, nothing to Katrina," said Malcolm James, 59, a federal investigator in New Orleans who lost his home after levees broke during Katrina in 2005.

"This is mild," he said. "Things could be worse."

It was too soon to tell if Hurricane Katia, out in the Atlantic, could endanger the United States.

By Friday evening, the outer bands of Lee began dumping rain over southeastern Louisiana, southern Mississippi and Alabama.

-- AP