The National Hurricane Center predicts Francine will make landfall on this Wednesday as a Category 2 hurricane, in which winds reach 96-110 miles per hour. By contrast, a Category 1 hurricane has peak sustained winds between 74 and 95 miles per hour. At 7:00AM CDT, the National Weather Service reported: Francine is moving toward the northeast near 12 mph (19 km/h). A faster northeastward motion is expected today, and Francine is anticipated to make landfall in Louisiana within the warning area this afternoon or evening with a dangerous storm surge expected. After landfall, the center is expected to move northward across Mississippi on Thursday and Thursday night. Francine is expected to bring storm total rainfall of 4 to 8 inches, with local amounts to 12 inches across southeastern Louisiana.
Entergy Louisiana is preparing for widespread power outages in the region. Vice President of Customer Service Michelle Bourg says Entergy is closely monitoring the storm’s path. As Sean Richardson with the Louisiana Radio Network reports, They are preparing their crews and resources to respond quickly to any damage caused by the hurricane. “We’ve been monitoring ever since it was an area of disturbed weather really picked up in our monitoring over the weekend. And we are ready to respond to whatever Francine may bring our way.” Bourg is urging customers to prepare for the storm by updating their contact information with Entergy so they can be updated on the status of power restoration.
Mandatory evacuations for locations outside the levee systems, including communities in Jefferson, Plaquemines and Terrebonne Parishes. In Grand Isle earlier this week, Mayor David Carmadelle had already begun urging his residents to get out. Carmadelle says his main concern is not the wind speed, but rather the storm surge. “We got our levee just about built with the geotube. Some places, they’re still working on it. But most of it is done to protect that. But I’m just most concerned about the water with high tides.”
Carmadelle says in recent years, building codes have strengthened so that most buildings can withstand a Category 1 hurricane like the one that’s expected to make landfall Wednesday evening. “I called a voluntary evacuation for my residents,” says Mayor Carmadelle. “At the same time, I called a mandatory evacuation for trailers and RVs to try to get the boats and trailers out of here and the RVs out.”
