TROPICAL STORM WATCH: Walton closes beaches as Lee looms

OKALOOSA ISLAND —Labor Day weekend, the last hurrah of the summer tourism season, kicked off Friday afternoon, but only a few swimmers ventured into the rough surf of the Gulf of Mexico.

As Tropical Storm Lee continues to churn off the coast of Louisiana, it is expected to bring heavy rain, rough surf and dangerous rip currents to the Emerald Coast through the holiday weekend.

By early Saturday, points from the Alabama border to Destin were under a Tropical Storm Watch.

The storm, with winds reaching 45 mph late Friday, is expected to increase in strength before making landfall on the central Louisiana coast late Saturday and then turning east toward New Orleans.

• View a slideshow from the beach Friday.
• View a weather radar presentation from Intellicast.
  
• View the county's live beach cam at The Boardwalk.
  
• View an interactive storm tracking chart.
  

Five to 10 inches of rain is expected along the Emerald Coast, which could cause flash flooding on some roads.

Up to 20 inches were predicted for other areas, including New Orleans. That could provide the biggest test for the rebuilt levees since Hurricane Gustav struck on Labor Day 2008.

Public safety officials in Northwest Florida have taken precautions for possible flooding and for dangerous swimming conditions in the Gulf.

“The biggest issue we’re watching is the possibility of flooding,” said Randy McDaniel, chief of emergency management for Okaloosa County. “We’re not expecting any tropical force winds.”

The county is monitoring river gauges, has water rescue teams on standby and has contacted the Red Cross to identify shelters, if necessary.

“Right now we don’t expect major impacts, but we are getting ready just in case,” McDaniel said.

The storm is moving slowly, which could mean several days of rain.

“With a slow-moving storm, it gives it more time to dump rain,” said Joy Tsubooka, public information officer for Santa Rosa County. “It looks like it could just sit over us and rain for an extended period of time.”

Rain could wash over roads, but flooding from rivers was not expected, she said.

“The good thing is it’s been very dry,” she said. “Our river levels are low so they can take a good amount of rain.”

Capt. Joe Preston, emergency management director for the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, said major flooding would not be an issue until early next week, if at all.

“It takes a couple days for rivers to swell, so we’ll be keeping an eye on it,” he said.

Surf conditions were rough Friday and were expected to worsen over the weekend.

In Walton County, officials posted double red flags Friday night, closing the Gulf to swimming. Preston said they expect to keep it that way through the weekend.

Red flags flew in Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties on Friday night. Officials had not closed the Gulf to swimming, but warned people that conditions were dangerous.

Tracey Vause, beach safety director for Okaloosa County, said extra staff will be on the beach through the weekend to warm people of dangerous rip currents.

“We’re trying to make 100 percent contact with everybody on the beach from a preventative posture rather than having to rescue them later,” he said. “At some point people will see or talk to a lifeguard while they’re on the beach this weekend.”

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

Federal authorities said 169 of the 617 staffed oil production platforms in Gulf had been evacuated Friday, along with 16 of the 62 drilling rigs. That reduced daily production by about 666,000 barrels of oil and 1.7 billion cubic feet of gas.

Governors in Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as the mayors of New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss., declared states of emergency. Officials in several coastal Louisiana and Mississippi communities called for voluntary evacuations.

Joe D’Agostino, beach safety coordinator for the Destin Fire Department, said he didn’t expect too much traffic along the beach.

He said the relatively light traffic on U.S. Highway 98 Friday afternoon suggested that some people had decided to stay home rather than vacation in the area.

“Not a lot of people are in the area and I suspect that there probably won’t be,” he said. “It seems that since Katrina people take storms a little bit more serious than they have in the past.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.