Louisiana was battening down the hatches as Hurricane Francine closed in on its shores Wednesday.
Francine, which developed in the Gulf of Mexico Monday, strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane Wednesday afternoon and is forecast to make landfall over Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center says. A hurricane falls within that classification when its winds are 96 mph or higher.
Francine is expected to reach Louisiana in the afternoon or evening and, the hurricane center says that “life-threatening storm surge and hurricane conditions” were spreading onto the Louisiana coast Wednesday afternoon, with dangerous storm surge potentially hitting the Mississippi coastline as well. The hurricane center said tropical storm conditions began arriving on Louisiana’s shores around 2 p.m. Such conditions typically precede a hurricane’s landfall by at least several hours.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who earlier declared a state of emergency and requested disaster assistance from the U.S. government, cautioned residents against underestimating the hurricane based on its category.
“Just because it’s a Category 1, or possibly Category 2, doesn’t mean it’s going to be a thunder bumper,” Landry said at a news conference ahead of Francine’s expected landfall Wednesday afternoon, where he urged people to stay indoors and follow any other instructions from local leadership, adding, “We have been through a lot here in Louisiana.”
After landfall, Francine is forecast to cross over southeastern Louisiana before moving northward over Mississippi Thursday. The storm will “weaken quickly” once it moves inland, the hurricane center said, and it will likely exit Louisiana by midnight.
The storm “is expected to bring storm total rainfall of 4 to 8 inches, with local amounts to 12 inches across much of Louisiana and Mississippi through Friday morning,” the center added. There is potential for “considerable” flash and urban flooding. Southeastern Louisiana, including metropolitan New Orleans and Baton Rouge, are most vulnerable. So is southwestern Mississippi, including the entirety of its coastal region.
“The time to evacuate has now passed. It’s time to go to ground and hunker down,” Landry said a few hours before Francine’s expected arrival. “We are no longer in the ‘prepare for a hurricane.’ We’re in the ‘respond to a hurricane.'”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-francine-tropical-storm-texas-louisiana-gulf/
There are some great views of the storm on YouTube storm chaser accounts. I can’t repost them here.