Hurricane Francine Hits Southeast Louisiana
Making landfall September 12 as a Category 2 storm in Terrebonne Parish, La., Hurricane Francine brought torrential rain and storm surge to southeast Louisiana and knocked out power to almost 400,000 users across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. At landfall, the storm had sustained winds of around 100 miles per hour. Francine dropped between 3 and 8 inches of rain in the New Orleans metropolitan area, with some spots seeing 12 inches, according to the National Hurricane Center. About 12 million people in the Gulf Coast region were under flood alerts at one point. A storm surge warning was briefly in effect from Grand Isle, La., to the Mississippi-Alabama border.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and President Joe Biden both declared a state of emergency in anticipation of the storm. The declarations free up emergency management resources and potential financial aid in the event of serious damage. News sources reported some homes destroyed in coastal areas near landfall.
The U.S. Coast Guard warned mariners that aids to navigation in the Gulf of Mexico or surrounding waters may be damaged, destroyed or submerged. Unlighted buoys may have moved from assigned positions, be extinguished or sunk. Mariners were urged to use “extreme caution” and report all discrepancies in the location of aids to navigation.
The Port of New Orleans closed terminal operations and its administration building September 12 as it assessed damage. Terminals returned to normal operation on September 13.
With hours of landfall, Francine was downgraded to a tropical storm, with the National Weather Service issuing a tropical storm warning for areas as far north as Hattiesburg, Miss., and as far east as Mobile, Ala. The storm was later downgraded to a tropical depression as it moved up the Mississippi River valley. Even in its weakened state, it still produced winds of 35 miles per hour and threatened some areas with storm surges, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. For many areas, the rain brought welcome but temporary and partial relief from the season’s low water on the Mississippi River.
Related tornado threats centered over the state of Alabama and the Florida panhandle. The Weather Channel reported that a “blocking pattern” will keep the remaining storm stalled over the South through the weekend. The National Weather Service has issued flood watches from the Florida panhandle through the Tennessee and lower Mississippi valleys.
Hurricane Francine was the sixth named storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, which has proven a relatively quiet one so far. Weather watchers are tracking a number of systems in the Atlantic that could still form into hurricanes.
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Photo caption: Capt. Gregory Callaghan, commander of Coast Guard Sector New Orleans, takes part in a post-Hurricane Francine overflight September 12 to assess the port conditions. (Photo courtesy of Sector New Orleans)
