Battened

Gulf producers battened down the hatches on hundreds ofplatforms yesterday, shut in more than 2.5 Bcf/d of gas andscrambled ashore as Tropical Storm Earl, which seemed to pop out ofnowhere Monday, rapidly gained strength and appeared likely tobecome the Gulf’s first hurricane by this morning. At 4 p.m.yesterday, the National Weather Service said hurricane warningswere in effect from Pascagoula, MS, to Cameron, LA. Hurricanewatches were in effect from east of Pascagoula to Destin, FL, andwest of Cameron to High Island, TX. Earl was centered near 27degrees north latitude and 93 degrees west longitude, moving northnortheast at 12 mph with 60 mph winds. The NWS said it expectedEarl to become a hurricane prior to landfall.