Mississippi governor Haley Barbour has declared a state of emergency in preparation for flooding as a result of tropical storm Lee, reports The Associated Press. The storm has not yet turned into a full blown hurricane and is not forecasted to even hit the southern state until Sunday or later. But following last week's Irene mayhem and a state of emergency declaration by Louisiana, Barbour's playing it safe. 

So far, the storm has cut off nearly half of the Gulf's oil-production, reports The Associated Press. "The evacuations have resulted in the shut-off of 47.6 percent of the Gulf's daily normal oil production and 33 percent of the normal daily natural gas production. That translates to about 666,000 barrels of oil and 1.7 billion cubic feet of gas."

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