Tropical Storm Francine Intensifying
Francine is intensifying and could be a hurricane by Tuesday. At the moment, it is heading towards the Lousiana and some counties are already taking measures to stop flood gates and to evacuate people before the disaster happens on the wednesday.
Francine had been about 400 miles away from Cameron, Louisiana on the morning of Tuesday. The storm was powerful with the wind speed of 65 mph the level of a hurricane being 74 mph. Currently, it is forecasted to produce heavy rain and strong winds across some areas of South Texas; however, it will clear out and strengthen as it enters the Gulf of Mexico.
Weather predictors are predicting that Francine will gain the status of a hurricane by Tuesday evening, and the storm will become a Category 2 hurricane by the Wednesday evening. The storm can even be a little dormant before touching the ground but it will create hurricane-level consequences, including but not limited to- Hail, Wind, and Surge. This could flood streets, damage homes and create power black outs.
It will be most severe in southern Louisiana, but the results of the storm will be felt over a broader part of the western Gulf Coast. Light to moderate rainfall and storms will persist in northwestern areas of Texas and south-central portions of Louisiana through the early morning on Wednesday when Francine’s primary rain makers make landfall late Tuesday night. Wind is expected by morning in the Wednesday.
Although winds are something that reveals the storm’s strength, water is the most deadly. With storm surge, Francine will throw sea water on to land. It might swamp dry parts of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Because of this, the residents have been advised to leave and this has been witnessed in many regions along the coast.
When Francine gets closer to Louisiana the water levels will be ten feet high, above the normal high water mark. It will also bring heavy rains effective for flooding due to the fact that there are some areas that already experienced rains last week. These areas are now under flood warning.
The outer bands of the storm will arrive in the Gulf Coast on Tuesday evening but the heavy downpour and strong winds will be felt on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. This is what Francine might bring from northeast Mexico down through southern Mississippi somewhere to 4 to 8 inches and up to 12 at southeast Louisiana.
It’s likely to dissipate after it makes the initial landfall and although the winds will not persist the rains will last into the week in the Mississippi River valley.
Governor of Louisiana has declared an emergency in the whole of the state. On Tuesday, there were more advisory that residents of areas along the coast should evacuate.” Some areas such as Lafourche Parish and Terrebonne Parish started evacuating people on Tuesday. Cameron Parish was already under a mandatory evacuation order.
Such areas as Jefferson Parish’s Grand Isle in which a powerful hurricane was witnessed in 2021, residents received both mandatory and voluntary evacuation notices. Other parishes, namely St Mary and Terrebonne parishes, closed the floodgates and distributed sandbags. Due to this threatening weather several parishes will have their schools being closed on Wednesday and Thursday.
In Mississippi some of the people in Pass Christian have also been evacuating in what may be a voluntary manner.
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