Pensacola, Fla. ? Forecasters were expecting good news from Tropical Storm Hanna, which could bring much-needed rain to the parched Southeast with little risk of damage from wind or surf.

The storm formed early Friday out of a tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico and was expected to make landfall this morning on the northern Gulf Coast.

It was expected to reach shore anywhere from the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, and once over land to turn northeast into Alabama and Georgia, said Jack Beven, a forecaster with the National Hurricane Center in Miami.