The National Hurricane Center in Miami upgraded ALEX to a Category 1 hurricane – the least powerful type – shortly before 10:00 pm CDT Tuesday. Alex is projected to stay hundreds of miles from the area of the BP spill zone, but the storm could cause complications on both the cleanup and the effots to cap the flow.

3 rigs, 28 platforms evacuated because of Hurricane Alex.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this post.