U.S. crude producers evacuated oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday as the first tropical storm of the season aimed for the Gulf coast, and forecasters said it could be a hurricane by landfall during the weekend, Reuters reported. U.S. forecasters issued a hurricane watch from Louisiana to Florida, meaning hurricane conditions were possible within 36 hours in areas still recovering from last summer's devastating storms. Outlying rain bands from the large but poorly defined Tropical Storm Arlene doused southern Florida, where a woman drowned while swimming in choppy seas, and also dumped heavy rains on western Cuba, the Cayman Islands and Central America. At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), Arlene was 440 miles (705 km) southeast of the Mississippi River and moving north at 13 mph (20 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Maximum sustained winds had reached 60 mph (95 kph). "It is possible that Arlene could reach hurricane strength before landfall," the Hurricane Center said. --More 0016 Local Time 2116 GMT
