Lee drops foot of rain on New Orleans

SAUCIER, Miss. -- Tropical Storm Lee dumped more than a foot of rain in New Orleans and spun off tornadoes elsewhere yesterday as its center came ashore in a slow crawl north that raised fears of inland flash flooding in the Deep South and beyond.

The massive system weakened in the evening to a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph.

Coastal areas of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi reported wind damage and flooding, but evacuations appeared to be in the hundreds rather than the thousands and New Orleans' levees were doing their job, six years after Hurricane Katrina swamped the city.

National Hurricane Center specialist Robbie Berg said Lee's flash flood threat could be more severe as the rain moves from the flatter Gulf region into the rugged Appalachians.

Closer to the Gulf, the water is "just going to sit there a couple of days," he said. "Up in the Appalachians you get more threat of flash floods -- so that's very similar to some of the stuff we saw in Vermont."

No deaths had been directly attributed to Tropical Storm Lee, though a body boarder in Galveston, Texas, drowned after being pulled out to sea in heavy surf churned up by Lee.

In Texas, Lee's strong, gusty winds whipped up the wildfires that have burned in the parched state this season, threatening some 1,000 homes east of Austin Sunday night, officials said.

Out in the Atlantic, meanwhile, Katia strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane and could be a major hurricane Monday.