Lili loses strength but is bringing rain to Missouri

Hurricane Lili gave Louisiana's coast a 100 mph battering Thursday that swamped streets, knocked out power and snapped trees. But Lili dwindled to tropical storm strength as it moved inland, leaving residents thankful it was not the monster they were expecting.

"It looks like we were lucky," Gov. Mike Foster said.

More than a million people in Texas and Louisiana had been told to clear out as the hurricane closed in with terrifying intensity. But in an overnight transformation even forecasters could not fully explain, Lili weakened from a 145-mph, Category 4 hurricane to a Category 2.

Despite the downgrade, local forecasters say she still should have enough left to bring some wind and rain to Southeast Missouri.

"It's not going to be close to what they're getting down here, but she'll make a slight appearance here," said meteorologist David Humphrey with the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky., which monitors the Cape Girardeau area.

That appearance will come in the form of rain that was expected to start Thursday night and continue into today, Humphrey said. Humphrey estimated that Cape Girardeau will probably see 1-3 inches of rain and winds of 15-25 mph, with some higher gusts possible.

But Humphrey said he expected the rain to dissipate by tonight and predicted a clear weekend with mainly clear skies with high temperatures in the low to mid 70s and lows in the upper 40s, Humphrey said.

If history holds, then the area should see a drop-off in temperatures in the next week or so. Over the past 10 years, temperature highs generally have fallen from the 70 degree area to the mid-50s by the middle of October.

The storm will affect the Midwest because most of the moisture is brought here by southerly winds from the Gulf of Mexico, he said. Lili is concentrating all of the moisture and pushing it northward.

"That's why it's going to be coming through us," he said.

It will only be here briefly, Humphrey said, because a front is coming behind it, pushing the rain and wind north and east.

"It's weakening as we speak," said John Dissauer, a meteorologist with KFVS-TV. "I think Cape will get an inch or two and the further east you go, the more rain you'll see. But the weekend does look pretty nice."

After Lili's center crossed land at Marsh Island, the storm's winds dropped, falling by midday to 75 mph, barely a hurricane. By evening, Lili was a tropical storm with winds of 50 mph, and instead of a potentially catastrophic 25-foot storm surge, more manageable surges of 6 to 10 feet blew in.

"A lot of Ph.D.s will be written about this," said National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield.

No deaths were reported along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Injuries included three people hurt in Louisiana -- two in a roof collapse and a deputy whose cruiser was hit by a falling tree. Earlier this week, Lili killed eight people in the Caribbean.