The entryway to Lake Ponchartrain Causeway is closed due to Hurricane Francine in Metairie, La., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. The causeway is the longest constant bridge over water worldwide. Matthew Hinton/AP conceal caption
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Matthew Hinton/AP
The National Hurricane Center stated late Wednesday night that Francine is no longer a cyclone and now is a hurricane as it gradually crossed Louisiana.
Francine has actually sustained winds of 70 miles per hour as it continues to move through southern Louisiana. The eye of the storm is simply west of New Orleans. Earlier today, it came ashore as a classification 2 cyclone. The storm continues to bring heavy rains and wind. More than 300,000 clients in Louisiana have no power.
Earlier Wednesday, Francine made landfall as a Category 2 cyclone at 5 p.m. regional time in the southern Louisiana Parish of Terrebonne, about 30 miles south-southwest of Morgan City.
“Heavy rains and hurricane-force winds are spreading out inland throughout southern Louisiana.,” the National Hurricane Center stated in an afternoon upgrade. “Now is the time to remain within and far from windows. Have numerous methods to get cautions and updates.”
If the storm rise accompanies high tide, water might reach 5 to 10 feet above ground from Louisiana’s Intracoastal City and Vermilion Bay to Port Fourchon.
The cyclone’s external bands of rain started striking Lafayette, Baton Rouge and other locations in southern Louisiana Wednesday early morning. In the Gulf of Mexico, an oil platform north of the storm’s center reported a peak gust of 105 miles per hour, the NHC stated.
Evacuations, and New Orleans under a flooding watch
The center of storm Francine was forecasted to make landfall near Morgan City, La., west of New Orleans, as seen on this map. Forecasters alert that heavy rains and a storm rise of 5 to 10 feet will present alarming hazards to individuals in low-lying locations and along the coast. NOAA/ National Weather Service conceal caption
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NOAA/ National Weather Service
Parishes along the coast released obligatory or voluntary evacuations today, caution of flooding, high winds and other results of the storm. On Tuesday, Iberia Parish likewise stated a curfew beginning at 11 a.m. CT Wednesday and going through 7 a.m. Thursday.
A cyclone caution– indicating cyclone conditions are anticipated in the location– was in impact for a swath of Louisiana’s coast from the line separating Vermilion and Cameron parishes eastward to Grand Isle, south of New Orleans.
The urbane New Orleans location was likewise under a typhoon watch, indicating cyclone conditions are possible within 24 hours. Rain might vary from 4 to 12 inches along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama– which are likewise under storm rise informs.
“The inmost water will take place along the instant coast near and to the east of the landfall area,