Tropical Storm Isaac has strengthened to a category 1 hurricane as it bares down on the Gulf Coast.

US President Barack Obama made a statement from the White House earlier as residents in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama prepare for the worst.

It is expected to make landfall in the New Orleans area 7 years after it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Swirling winds, rain and storm surge could pose a major test of New Orleans’ new flood control systems and reinforced levees.

Forecasts from the U.S. National Hurricane Centre showed the storm barreling ashore late on Tuesday or early Wednesday near south-eastern Louisiana.

Energy companies evacuated offshore oil rigs and shut down U.S. Gulf Coast refineries as the storm threatened to batter the oil refining belt.

Isaac spared Tampa in Florida where the Republican National Convention began yesterday.

Rain and tropical storm force winds were expected to spread into the Gulf Coast region in the coming hours bringing the threat of storm surge and flooding.

Barack Obama has told Americans not to tempt fate as a vast storm heads for the southern coast of the United States.

The US President is urging everyone in its path to listen to official warnings.

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