The low pressure weather system which Thursday morning moved across Florida into the Gulf of Mexico is expected to transform into a tropical system over the next couple of days, several forecasters warned. The National Hurricane Center dispatched a reconnaissance aircraft to investigate, which found a broad circulation centered about 115 miles west-southwest of St. Petersburg, Florida but which doesn't yet have tropical characteristics.

However, things are likely to change fast over the next days as it moves west-northwestward over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and away from the Bay area. The National Weather Service said that current conditions favor the low-pressure system becoming a subtropical or tropical cyclone today before making landfall. The storm might move across Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, although areas such as the Florida Panhandle will be affected as well.

“We’re certainly continuing to watch it and hoping it moves west before it fully develops,” said Mr. Mark Bowen, chief of Bay County emergency services. “It’s still not too late for folks to prepare,” he added.

It seems unlikely the storm could be stronger than a Category 1 hurricane, with top winds of 95 mph. However, flooding and wind damage can occur even at much lower wind speeds. The federal Minerals Management Service announced that oil industry workers have left five production platforms in the gulf, and three drilling rigs have been evacuated. However, there has been no known decrease in the production of oil and natural gas in the Gulf.  A typical tropical storm carries sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph. Katrina, which killed hundreds of people and flooded most of New Orleans, entered land as a Category 3 storm, with sustained winds of more than 111 mph.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami advised people with interests along the northern Gulf coast to monitor the system.

"With Louisiana still suffering from the ravages of Katrina and having so many residents living in travel trailers and mobile homes, we feel it's prudent at this time less than 36 hours out from the onset of landfall, to recommend the governor make the declaration," Mark Smith, a spokesman for the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said. The state's governor, Kathleen Blanco, declared a state of emergency late Thursday, putting the National Guard on alert and school buses, ambulances and evacuation shelter workers on standby.

In Mississippi, officials handed out sandbags Thursday in coastal areas, as Gov. Haley Barbour warned residents in a telephone message not to panic but to be prepared.