The stretch of Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle already has been hit with three tropicalsystems this year -- Hurricane Dennis and tropical storms Arlene and Cindy.
The National Weather Service had earlier said the combination of two weather systems from the polar and sub-tropical jet streams would produce a "potentially historic" storm.
Total carbon deposits per square kilometer in these coastal systems may be up to five times the carbon stored in tropical forests, due to their ability to absorb, or sequester, carbon at rates up to 50 times those of the same area of tropical forest.