By Ashley Sanders

The News staff writer

An area of low pressure that lingered along the Florida coast for several days finally entered the Gulf of Mexico Thursday morning — prompting local officials to more readily monitor weather reports.

“It is likely that a tropical depression will form in the next day or so as the system becomes better organized and moves west over the warm water of the Gulf,” according to AccuWeather.com. “The system could intensify into Tropical Storm Jerry on Friday, before impacting the central Gulf Coast late Friday or early Saturday,”

National Weather Service-Lake Charles forecaster Roger Erickson said Thursday, however, that nothing certain could be said yet about this storm.

“The big problem is identifying where the dominant low pressure system will be this afternoon,” he said early Thursday. “Right now, we can pick out at least three possible locations for development. The further south the development, the further to the west the system will move.”

The National Hurricane Center sent out a hurricane hunter crew Thursday afternoon to track the storm’s path. The group reports that the storm does not show signs of developing rapidly and will most likely not grow into a hurricane.

Shell Oil has already evacuated 600 offshore employees throughout the Gulf just in case, and the company reports more workers will be moved to drier ground in the next several days.

At home, most Port Arthur refineries were back up to producing at full capacity Thursday afternoon after shutting down during last week’s Hurricane Humberto.

While the threat of another hurricane seems minimal, local officials are still encouraging residents to continue monitoring weather forecasts.

“Citizens are urged to fuel up their vehicles now,” according to a press release from the Beaumont Emergency Management office issued on Thursday. “State officials are working on fuel management to make it more accessible to the upper Texas Coast.”

It is recommended that all Southeast Texans review emergency plans regardless of where the disturbance makes landfall.

Residents should:

• Have evacuation plans ready to put in place should one be called for.

• Make arrangements for elderly and/or disabled family members to evacuate with them.