The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning from the mouth of the Pearl River, which separates southern Mississippi from the easternmost part of Louisiana, to the Alabama-Florida border. Workers on at least 54 oil and gas production platforms were evacuated.Gordon became a tropical storm Monday near the Florida Keys.Mayors of barrier islands in the storm's path warned that their communities might get cut off from the mainland. (Reuters) - Tropical storm Gordon is moving quickly across the eastern Gulf of Mexico and is expected to make landfall as a hurricane along the north-central Gulf coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory on Monday. The center of Gordon will approach the north-central Gulf Coast late Tuesday afternoon or evening, and move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley on Wednesday, the NHC said, adding rapid weakening was expected after Gordon moved inland. Gordon is located about 330 miles (530 kilometers) east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River with maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour (95 kilometers/hour), the Miami-based weather forecaster said. As much as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain could fall in some parts of the Gulf states through late Thursday as the tropical weather moves inland toward Arkansas.Forecasters said it was possible Gordon's winds might meet the 74 mph (120 kph) threshold to be a hurricane before making landfall later Tuesday. The hurricane center also issued a storm surge warning, meaning possible "danger of life-threatening inundation,'' for late Tuesday for the area stretching from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama. “The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large waves,” the center said. In Mississippi, Gov. The last hurricane to strike the U.S. was Nate last October, coming ashore in Biloxi with 75 mph (120 kph) winds.Governors in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana all declared states of emergency to better mobilize state resources and National Guard troops for the storm. Sometimes it starts pushing not only water across but debris, logs and things of that nature, which makes it very treacherous to get across," said Jeff Collier, mayor of Dauphin Island, Alabama.Gordon was poised for only a glancing blow to New Orleans, where Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the city has "the pumps and the power" needed to protect residents.Authorities issued a voluntary evacuation order for areas outside the city's levee protection system.L. Miami Beach police said via Twitter that the Labor Day holiday was “NOT a beach day” because of rough surf and potential rip currents. Red flags flew over Pensacola-area beaches in Florida’s Panhandle, where swimming and wading in the Gulf of Mexico were prohibited. The storm left many businesses on Florida's Gulf Coast feeling shortchanged by the holiday weekend. Jenna Wright, owner of a coffee shop in Naples, Florida, told the Naples Daily News that she had expected higher numbers for the Labor Day weekend. “This is normally a decent weekend, but the storm and red tide aren’t helping,” Wright said. “We’re a beach coffee shop, and if people can’t go to the beach, then we won’t get any customers.”

Gordon is the seventh named tropical storm or hurricane to form in the Atlantic basin this year. Tropical Storm Florence continues to spin in the central Atlantic Ocean, about 2,700 miles from Miami.
Tropical Storm Gordon forms in the Florida Keys and is forecast to strengthen over the next 48 hours as it brings strong winds and heavy rain to the Gulf of Mexico.