Tropical Storm Ida continues to move across the Gulf South, entering Mississippi on Monday after making landfall in Louisiana on Sunday.
The storm is moving slowly across Mississippi, expected in the Jackson area through Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
While the storm has weakened significantly since it made landfall as a major Category 4 hurricane, it is still expected to bring danger from high winds and downed power lines across the state.
Forecasters say flooding continues to pose the greatest jeopardy.
“The worst is over with this,” said meteorologist Dan Holiday. “What we have to deal with, though, is the flooding impacts and the aftermath.”
Southern and central Mississippi stretching east to the Alabama border are at the highest risk. The area could get 4 to 8 inches of rain, with some isolated spots possibly getting even higher amounts.
Winds are forecasted between 45 to 65 miles per hour in the area, threatening widespread trees and utility damage. Power and communication outages are expected to last several days. On Monday morning, power outages began spreading across Jackson and the region. Hind County reported about 8,000 residents were without power at 7 a.m.
Tornados are also possible Monday morning, especially in far eastern Mississippi and across the border into Alabama.
The storm continues to weaken rapidly, according to the National Hurricane Center. Ida made landfall with 150 mph winds Sunday before weakening as it moved inland. By 7 a.m. Monday winds had weakened to 45 mph. The center of Ida is expected not to leave the region until Tuesday evening.
More than 860,000 Entergy customers were without power in Louisiana Monday morning. All eight transmission lines that deliver power to New Orleans have been knocked out. At least one death has been reported in Louisiana from Ida so far.