High winds and rain as tropical storm nears US Gulf Coast

Tropical Storm Cristobal lashed the northern Gulf Coast with high winds and drenching rain Sunday, heading toward a Louisiana landfall while swamping roads in Mississippi, prompting tornado watches in Alabama and spinning off a twister that uprooted trees in Florida.Residents of waterside communities outside the New Orleans levee system — bounded by lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne — were urged to evacuate Sunday afternoon because of their vulnerability to an expected storm surge.Water