⁍ Tropical Storm Zeta speeding off the Yucatan Peninsula bringing high winds and rain to a region still reeling from a series of storms.

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⁍ Zeta expected to hit an area between Louisiana and the Mississippi-Alabama border by late Wednesday at or near hurricane strength.

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⁍ New Orleans residents living outside the state’s protective levee system were advised to seek higher ground.

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– Louisiana is gearing up for yet another tropical storm—the fifth to hit the state this year. Tropical Storm Zeta is expected to make landfall between Louisiana and the Alabama border late Wednesday or early Thursday, Reuters reports. The storm is expected to be at hurricane strength when it reaches the Gulf Coast. “No one should be complacent because it is late October,” says Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards. “This season won’t be over until the end of next month.” The state has already closed 207 floodgates to prevent flooding and 1,400 members of the Louisiana National Guard are on stand-by. The storm could bring hurricane winds and a 4-to-6-foot storm surge from Port Fourchon, Louisiana, to the Pearl River in Mississippi, the National Hurricane Center says. Rains initially are forecast to be 2 to 4 inches at the coast. Oil and gas producers on Tuesday had evacuated 157 offshore production facilities and shut wells producing more than 900,000 barrels of oil and 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas. A Louisiana landfall would make Zeta the fifth named storm to directly strike the state this year after Cristobal, Marco, Laura, and Delta. Tropical Storm Beta went ashore over the border in Texas, bringing winds and flooding rains.