Isaac Will Bring Heavy Rain

A hurricane warning is in effect for a 300-mile swath of coast from Louisiana to northern Florida as Tropical Storm Isaac gains strength in the Gulf of Mexico and continually pushes its course to the west.

Residents from Morgan City, La., to Destin, Fla., including New Orleans, are preparing for a Wednesday afternoon landfall, but Hurricane Isaac's impacts will cover the entire southeast, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Forecasts call for as much as five inches of rain in parts of South Carolina over the next week, according to the National Weather Service. No part of the state will escape the storm's deluge, but high winds are not likely.

The Weather Channel is calling for isolated thunderstorms and rain for Greenville, Charleston and Columbia for the next 10 days. See the forecast for Easley.

Sunday afternoon, the storm was brushing past the Florida Keys after passing Cuba. The storm is expected to gain strength and become a hurricane within 48 hours, according to the Hurricane Center.

It has sustained wind speeds near 60 mph. It's producing tropical storm force winds over a 200-mile-wide region. The storm is expected to soak the Gulf Coast with up to 15 inches of rain in some parts.

All over the South, the storm is producing rip-current warnings. Beaches as far north as Edisto Island in the Charleston area are warning individuals to stay out of the water.

Isaac is the ninth named storm of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season. The 10th storm, Joyce, fizzled in the Atlantic this week. A new storm spotted Sunday afternoon 750 miles off the coast of the Cape Verde Islands.

That storm has a 50 percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone. The next named storm will be Kirk.