MIAMI - Ida is no longer a hurricane, but is still expected to bring rain and strong winds to the Southeast, including Coastal Georgia.
The storm lost strength over the water on its way to a landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast sometime early Tuesday.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami downgraded Ida to a tropical storm Monday morning after its top sustained winds dropped to near 70 mph.
Hurricane warnings were dropped along the Gulf Coast and replaced with tropical storm warnings that stretch from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.
The center of Ida was located about 185 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and moving north-northwest near 17 mph.
For residents of rain-soaked parts of Georgia the possibility of flooding looms from the storm.
Georgia climatologist David Stooksbury says most of the northern half of the state is vulnerable to flash flooding because of already swollen streams and saturated soil. He said the ground's moisture level is in the 99th percentile, which means it would be drier in 99 of the last 100 years.
Georgia and Alabama were plagued with deadly floods in September that killed at least 10 people. Weather experts say the flooding was near the top of the worst floods in the United States during the past century.
Ida is expected to make landfall Monday night and douse the Southeast in rain until at least Wednesday.
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