Hurricane Francine nears Louisiana coast, TD7 forms and NHC tracks 3 more systems – Orlando Sentinel

Hurricane Francine began lashing the Louisiana coast on Wednesday while the National Hurricane Center began advisories on a new tropical depression and tracked three more Atlantic systems.

As of the NHC’s 3 p.m. hourly position update, the center of Francine was located about 80 miles south-southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana and 135 miles southwest of New Orleans, with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph and moving northeast at 17 mph. Hurricane-force winds extend up to 40 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend out 115 miles.

“Tropical-storm-force winds and heavy rainfall are spreading inland across southern Louisiana, and conditions will continue to deteriorate over the next several hours,” the NHC posted in the update. “Hurricane force-winds are located just offshore. Now is the time to stay inside and away from windows. Have multiple ways to receive warnings and updates.”

The update said an oil platform at the storm’s center reported sustained winds of 92 mph and a peak gust of 112 mph.

“Francine is anticipated to make landfall in Louisiana within the warning area later this afternoon or this evening,” forecasters said. “After landfall, the center is expected to cross southeastern Louisiana tonight, then move northward across Mississippi on Thursday and Thursday night.”

Hurricane Francine floodwater rises around a statue of Mary tied to the support of an elevated home in Terrebonne Parish as the hurricane begins to make landfall along the Louisiana coast on Wednesday, Sept.11, 2024. (Chris Granger/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

A handwritten sign is placed on the front door of Ceana’s Cajun Cookin’ restaurant informing customers they will reopen if they have electricity as Hurricane Francine begins to make landfall in south Louisiana on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (Chris Granger /The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

Kevin “Choupie” Badle, 67, rides his bike with an umbrella to buy more cigarettes at the store ahead of Hurricane Francine, expected to make landfall this evening, in Stephenville, La., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Sandbags and plastic line the threshold of an entrance to the the Williams Research Center in New Orleans’ French Quarter, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, as the city was bracing for high winds and possible flooding from as Hurricane Francine approached Louisiana’s coast. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill)

Boarded windows and sandbags cover the windows of a Bourbon Street bar in New Orleans’ French Quarter, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, as the city was bracing for high winds and possible flooding as Hurricane Francine approached Louisiana’s coast. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill)

Oscar Torres, of Morgan City, enters a gas station that is boarded up in anticipation of Hurricane Francine, in Morgan City, La., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Harrison County officials workon Bayou Portage bridge in Pass Christian, Miss. in preparation of Hurricane Francine Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (Hunter Dawkins/The Gazebo Gazette via AP)

Outside trash cans and product displays are moved inside a boarded up gas station in anticipation of Hurricane Francine, in Morgan City, La., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Pat Simon, a resident of Morgan City, stops at a gas station after loading up a rental truck with possessions from his home, as he evacuates to a hotel in anticipation of Hurricane Francine, in Morgan City, La., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Melanie Favila talks about the impending Hurricane Francine after she returned to her trailer to retrieve important documents at a trailer park, in Morgan City, La., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. She will be staying with family in a house in central Morgan City. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

A streetcar eases past cars parked on the median in anticipation of street flooding from Tropical Storm Francine on South Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill)

A customer enters a gas station that is boarded up in anticipation of Hurricane Francine, in Morgan City, La., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Luis Morfin ratchets his trailer to jack supports as he prepares for Hurricane Francine at a trailer park in Morgan City, La., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Maintenance workers for Keith’s Superstores put up plywood on the Pass Christian, Miss. location in preparation for Hurricane Francine on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Hannah Ruhoff/The Sun Herald via AP)

Sandbags and plastic line the door thresholds of a Bourbon Street nightclub in New Orleans’ French Quarter, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, as the city was bracing for high winds and possible flooding as Hurricane Francine approached Louisiana’s coast. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill)

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Hurricane Francine floodwater rises around a statue of Mary tied to the support of an elevated home in Terrebonne Parish as the hurricane begins to make landfall along the Louisiana coast on Wednesday, Sept.11, 2024. (Chris Granger/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

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Gov. Jeff Landry urged residents, who have often faced threats of hurricanes, to “stay off the roads, stay home and stay put.” Since the mid-19th century 57 hurricanes have tracked over or made landfall in Louisiana, according to The Weather Channel. Among them are some of the strongest, costliest and deadliest storms in U.S. history.

“I know that we have been through a lot here in Louisiana, but I urge everyone to take the necessary preparations,” Landry said.

The governor said the Louisiana National Guard was being sent to parishes that could be impacted by Francine. They have with food, water, nearly 400 high-water vehicles, about 100 boats and 50 helicopters to respond to the storm, including possible search-and-rescue operations.

President Joe Biden granted an emergency declaration that will help Louisiana secure federal money and logistical assistance from partners such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Both Landry and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves also declared states of emergency, authorizing them to quickly free up resources for disaster assistance.

Francine is expected to bring total rainfall of 4 to 8 inches, with local amounts to 12 inches, into Friday morning. This rainfall could lead to the risk of considerable flash and urban flooding.

The biggest storm surge threat could bring 5- to 10-foot-higher levels than normal in Louisiana from the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge to Port Fourchon and Vermilion Bay with lower levels to the east and west.

“The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large and dangerous waves,” the NHC stated. “Storm surge is not expected to pose a threat to the risk reduction system levees. However, there may be some overtopping of local levees.”

A hurricane warning remained in effect for the Louisiana coast from Vermilion/Cameron Line eastward to Grand Isle while a hurricane watch was in place for Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain, including metropolitan New Orleans. A tropical storm warning was in effect from Cameron to the Vermilion/Cameron Line in Louisiana, and east of Grand Isle, Louisiana to the Alabama/Florida border as well as Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain, including metropolitan New Orleans.

A storm surge warning remained in effect for Cameron to the Mississippi/Alabama Border, Vermilion Bay, Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain.

In downtown New Orleans, cars and trucks were lined up for blocks on Tuesday to collect sandbags from the parking lot of a local YMCA. CEO Erika Mann said Tuesday that 1,000 bags of sand had already been distributed by volunteers later in the day to people hoping to protect homes from possible flooding.

One resident picking up sandbags was Wayne Grant, 33, who moved to New Orleans last year and was nervous for his first potential hurricane in the city. The low-lying rental apartment he shares with his partner had already flooded out in a storm the year before and he was not taking any chances this time around.

“It was like a kick in the face, we’ve been trying to stay up on the weather ever since,” Grant said. “We’re super invested in the place, even though it’s not ours.”

Bands of heavy rain were hitting New Orleans Wednesday morning. The city’s historic streetcars that roll on South Carrollton Avenue had to ease past cars that motorists parked next to the tracks on the grassy median. The median is a few inches higher than the street and drivers sometimes park there to avoid street flooding.

In Morgan City, gas stations had already put plywood on the windows and moved trash cans inside, with a few pumps still serving the trickle of cars passing through shortly after dawn.

Retired boat captain Pat Simon, 75, and his wife, Ruth, had loaded all their possessions in garbage bags and tied them down in the back of a rented U-Haul pickup truck as they evacuated their home near the banks of the Atchafalaya River near Morgan City.

Hurricane season typically peaks around this time of year, but Pat Simon wasn’t overly concerned about Francine.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that bad, like some of the other ones like Ida and Katrina,” he said. “I mean, we’ve had some bad ones.”

Morgan City, home to around 11,500 people, sits on the banks of the Atchafalaya River in south Louisiana and is surrounded by lakes and marsh. It’s described on the city’s website as “gateway to the Gulf of Mexico for the shrimping and oilfield industries.”

Larry Doiron, the owner of a Chevron station just outside of Morgan City limits, said he had enough gas to keep pumps operational through the storm.

“We’re the only place out here for the sheriff’s department, the fire department. We have gas. All the locals depend on us,” he said. “We’re going to try and stay on top of it and hopefully take care of everybody.

The hurricane center said parts of Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle were at risk of “considerable” flash and urban flooding starting Wednesday, followed by a threat of possible flooding later in the week into the lower Mississippi Valley and lower Tennessee Valley as the soggy remnants of Francine sweep inland.

Francine is taking aim at a Louisiana coastline that has yet to fully recover since hurricanes Laura and Delta decimated Lake Charles in 2020, followed a year later by Hurricane Ida.

A little over three years after Ida trashed his home in the Dulac community of coastal Louisiana’s Terrebonne Parish – and about a month after he finished rebuilding – Coy Verdin was preparing for another hurricane.

“We had to gut the whole house,” he recalled in a telephone interview, rattling off a memorized inventory of the work, including a new roof and new windows.

Verdin, 55, strongly considered moving farther inland, away from the home where he makes his living on nearby Bayou Grand Caillou. After rebuilding, he said he’s there to stay.

“As long as I can. It’s getting rough, though,” he said.

The NHC also began advisories for Tropical Depression Seven late Wednesday morning.

As of 11 a.m., the center of TD7 was located in the eastern Atlantic about 310 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph as it heads west-northwest at 18 mph.

It’s no threat to land.

“A west to west-northwest motion at a slower forward speed is anticipated over the next few days, forecasters said. “Some strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and the depression could become a tropical storm tonight or on Thursday.”

If it does, it would become Tropical Storm Gordon.

The National Hurricane Center also had its hands full tracking three more systems in the Atlantic including two new ones Wednesday with a chance to develop into the season’s next tropical depression or storm.

One located in the central tropical Atlantic is an elongated area of low pressure with disorganized shower and thunderstorm activity.

“Environmental conditions appear marginally conducive for some slight development during the next day or two while the system moves westward at 5 to 10 mph over the central tropical Atlantic,” forecasters said. “The disturbance is expected to reach an area of
stronger upper-level winds on Thursday, likely ending its chances”

The NHC gives it a 30% chance to develop in the next two to seven days.

Just to the west of that and several hundred miles east of the Caribbean’s Leeward Islands is a small, but well-defined area of low pressure with disorganized showers and thunderstorms.

“The proximity of dry air near the system is expected to limit additional development over the next couple of days before environmental conditions become even less conducive by this weekend as it moves slowly west-northwestward,” forecasters said,

The NHC gives it a 10% chance to develop in the next two to seven days.

And finally, offshore from the southeastern United States in the western Atlantic, a nontropical area of low pressure is forecast to form along a residual frontal boundary a few hundred miles off the southeast U.S. coastline.

“Thereafter, some subtropical or tropical development is possible during the early part of next week while the system drifts to the north or northwest,” forecasters said.

The NHC gives that system a 30% chance to develop in the next seven days.

After Francine, the next names on the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season list are Gordon, Helene, Isaac and Joyce.

Hurricane season runs from June 1-Nov. 30.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Originally Published: September 11, 2024 at 6:46 a.m.