Louisiana Braces for Storm Expected to Hit as Hurricane

Tropical Storm Francine strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday and was forecast to make landfall as a hurricane Wednesday night in Louisiana, where evacuation orders were quickly issued in some coastal communities and residents began filling sandbags in preparation for heavy rains and widespread flooding. Francine, the sixth named storm of the hurricane season, was expected to become a hurricane by Monday night or Tuesday morning, the US National Hurricane Center in Miami said. The storm is already being felt in Mexico, where rains closed schools as the storm gathered strength, the AP reports.

Forecasters said the storm is expected to hit Louisiana's coast as a Category 2 hurricane, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. Officials warn that flooding in the area is likely to begin Tuesday afternoon and persist through Thursday.

• "We're going to have a very dangerous situation developing by the time we get into Wednesday for portions of the north-central Gulf Coast, primarily along the coast of Louisiana, where we're going to see the potential for life-threatening storm surge inundation and hurricane-force winds," said Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center.
• A storm surge warning has been issued from east of Galveston, Texas, to the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana. A hurricane warning has been issued for the Louisiana coast from Sabine Pass to Morgan City.

• The storm surge pushed by Francine could reach as much as 10 feet along a stretch of Louisiana coastline from Cameron to Port Fourchon and into Vermilion Bay, forecasters said. And if the current track holds, the storm could blow northward up the Mississippi River, into the Illinois area by Saturday. "Francine is expected to bring multiple days of heavy rainfall, considerable flash flooding risk," Brennan said.
• Louisiana officials urged residents to immediately prepare for the storm while "conditions still allow" for it, Mike Steele, spokesperson for the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, told the AP. "We always talk about how anytime something gets into the Gulf, things can change quickly, and this is a perfect example of that," Steele said.
• Francine is taking aim at a stretch of coastline that has yet to fully recover since hurricanes Laura and Delta decimated Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 2020, followed a year later by Hurricane Ida.

(More hurricane stories.)