New Orleans: Hurricane Nate made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River as a Category 1 storm with winds of 85 miles per hour on Saturday evening, threatening parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with torrential rain and potential flooding.

Nate, the fourth major storm to strike the United States in less than two months, killed at least 30 people in Central America before entering the warm waters of the Gulf and bearing down on the US South.

As the hurricane struck at about 7 p.m. CDT (0000 GMT Sunday), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) downgraded its warning for New Orleans to a tropical storm. But Nate was expected to regain some strength and make a second landfall along the coast of Mississippi to the east.

‘While it appears we’re being spared ... our hearts go out to Mississippi,’ said Amos Cormier, president of Plaquemines Parish, a low-lying area in the New Orleans area.

The hurricane’s center was expected to pass over portions of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee late Saturday through Sunday night, eventually weakening to a tropical depression. Before then, storm surges of up to 11 feet on the Mississippi-Alabama border were still possible, the NHC said.

Earlier in the day, a state of emergency was declared in the three states, as well as in more than two dozen Florida counties.

Nate comes on the heels of three other major storms, Harvey, Irma and Maria, which devastated Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, respectively. But as a Category 1, the weakest in the five-category ranking used by meteorologists, Nate appeared to lack the devastating punch of its predecessors.

Plaquemines Parish evacuated some 240 residents who were not protected by its levee system as the storm approached.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu lifted a curfew in the city on Saturday evening that was originally scheduled to last until Sunday morning. He said in a statement on social media however, that there was still a serious threat of storm surge outside levee areas.

Alabama, Mississippi brace

In a statement, the City of Biloxi was warning its 46,000 residents that the highest storm surge would occur between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. and could reach 11 to 12 feet.

In Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey urged residents in areas facing heavy winds and storm surges to take precautions.

East of the Mississippi River from the central Gulf Coast into the Deep South, eastern Tennessee Valley, and southern Appalachians, 3 to 6 inches and a maximum of 10 inches of rain was expected, the NHC said.

The Ohio Valley into the central Appalachians could see 2 to 5 inches with maximums of 7.

Major shipping ports across the central US Gulf Coast were closed to inbound and outbound traffic on Saturday, as Nate intensified and storm surges of up 11 feet (3.74 m) were expected at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

The storm has curtailed 92 percent of daily oil production and 77 percent of daily natural gas output in the Gulf of Mexico, more than three times the amount affected by Harvey.

Workers had been evacuated from 301 platforms and 13 rigs as of Saturday, said the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

Before heading north into the Gulf, Nate brushed Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, home to beach resorts such as Cancun and Playa del Carmen, the NHC said.

The storm doused Central America with heavy rains on Thursday, killing at least 16 people in Nicaragua, 10 in Costa Rica, two in Honduras and two in El Salvador.

Thousands were forced to evacuate their homes and Costa Rica’s government declared a state of emergency.