NEW ORLEANS:
Storm Francine slammed into the southern United States on Thursday, lashing the region with heavy rain and gusty winds while causing widespread power outages to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.
It weakened from a Category 2 hurricane to a tropical depression as it moved northeast over central Mississippi, but it still had winds of 35 miles per hour (55 km/h). h) and threatened areas with dangerous storm surges early Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said. said in a notice.
It is expected to weaken further and become a post-tropical cyclone later today, the center added.
In the coastal town of Houma, Louisiana, in Terrebonne Parish, where the storm made landfall Wednesday evening with winds of nearly 100 mph, Christine Bundy, 72, was plugging in a new generator that she had just bought.
“A category 2 is nothing,” she told Reuters by telephone on Thursday. “This house has weathered every storm since 1975.”
It took deadly Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 storm that hit Louisiana in 2021, to earn Bundy’s respect and fear. “Ida took our roof off, tore down the fence and everything,” she said. “With this one, we’re just doing a little housekeeping.”
Heavy rain was expected throughout the day in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle after many places were drenched in downpours for hours. In total, some locations could receive up to a foot of rain before the storm completely subsides, the National Weather Service said.
Government offices, schools and libraries were closed across the region due to widespread flooding.
“Our drainage system just couldn’t keep up,” said Jennifer Van Vrancken, city councilwoman for Jefferson Parish, which encompasses part of the New Orleans metropolitan area. “It will be a flood where people will remember having water inside their homes. »
The storm left more than 400,000 homes and businesses without power, and dozens of people had to be rescued from floodwaters across the tri-state area.
Just south of New Orleans, in Lafourche Parish, more than two dozen people, including young children, were rescued Wednesday evening from rising waters, the local sheriff’s office said online.
The iconic French Quarter area of New Orleans, known for its touristy bars and restaurants, was on lockdown Wednesday with a notable police presence and very few pedestrians.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and President Joe Biden each declared a state of emergency in anticipation of the storm, freeing up emergency management resources and potential financial aid in the event of severe damage.
In Dulac, Louisiana, a coastal fishing community 70 miles southwest of New Orleans, fisherman Barry Rogers weathered the storm on his 80-foot-long shrimp boat rather than at home.
“It was a lot worse than the weatherman said,” Rogers said. “It moved pretty well.”