Hurricane Ida

MIAMI, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Hurricane Ida, a late-season storm that raked Central America, headed into the Gulf of Mexico and toward the U.S. mainland.

Hurricane watches were posted across several southern U.S. states ahead of Ida's move north. The storm, which had Category 1 strength at daybreak Monday, was expected to reach the United States early Tuesday.

If it does make U.S. landfall as a hurricane, it would be the first storm of 2009 to do so.

More than 100 people were killed in storm-related flooding in El Salvador but weather officials said that disaster was due to a weather-maker on the Pacific Ocean side of Central America and not Hurricane Ida.

No mandatory evacuations have been ordered but the oil markets have taken notice. There has been a spike in the price of crude oil since Ida poses a threat to offshore oil production.