Team Coverage: Tracking Tropical Storm Francine, possible impact to New Orleans area

Good evening everyone. I'm Katie. More. All eyes are on the southern Gulf of Mexico tonight as tropical storm Francine continues to strengthen right now, Francine is expected to make landfall somewhere along the central Louisiana coast, but it's not set in stone just yet that w chief meteorologist Chris Franklin tracking the storm for us and has more tonight on how strong Francine could get and what effects we could see here across Southeast Louisiana. Chris, what well as the four o'clock advisory, which if you were with us at five and during our four o'clock update, it brought you some new information. One, there was a little bit of a shift to the west which is good for us. And then what wasn't as good was the expectation that this could become a category two at landfall. Now, it certainly wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Certainly something that was being mentioned by a lot of the models and as this does try and get better organized, that looked to be more of a likelihood. Now at the moment, you'll notice thunderstorm development is a little bit more north and west of the center as a matter of fact, it almost looks like some drier air is being trained into the center that could hinder any further organization through the night. However, all indications are it will continue to intensify through the night, likely becoming a hurricane, probably maybe by the 10 o'clock advisory or the 1 a.m. advisory. I don't think we're going to see that at 7 p.m. but probably by tonight and then as we had to tomorrow, that is when we start to see more of that north easterly motion, that will have a much better idea of where precisely along the Louisiana coast, it could make landfall. Now, as of right now, we're expecting a two just to the west of Marsh Island up toward Lafayette at about 100 mile an hour winds. This would do some significant damage right along the coastline and further inland where we have some watches and warnings. Now, in effect, as far as the trend of the models, one thing we saw before the four o'clock was a noticeable shift in the models. One of those reasons, it looked like the center kind of redeveloped a little bit more to the west as well. And the models were picking up on that. Is it a trend that continues? We'll have another suite of models before the 10 o'clock. If they maintain this kind of a path, a little bit more centered, maybe more toward Lake Charles. I would venture to say we will see the track shift as well. And again, for us, it would better because that would take the brunt of the storm further away. We're already starting to see some of the moisture and cloud cover associated with Francine move toward our coast. Few isolated showers and tomorrow we'll have a little bit more rainfall but manageable if you still have things to go run and do, and then Wednesday will be the day you kind of just wanna hang inside. Not that it's gonna be detrimental here. This is not an IDA, this is not anything close to being an IDA for us. This looks to be strong winds, heavy rainfall at times and more than anything may be a coastal flooding concern will break those impacts down in just a moment. All important stuff. Thank you, Chris and Jefferson. Parish officials. There are keeping a close eye on tropical storm Francine and the impacts that it could have on its residents and their property. The parish laid out its plan for the storm at a press conference that wrapped up just a few minutes ago, Lily Cummings was there and she's joining us now live with more on what JP officials had to say, Lily Katie. That's right. Jefferson parish president Cynthia Lee, she signed a declaration of emergency and called for all residents in Crown Point, John La Barre area lower the fee and Grand Isle for a mandatory evacuation again, mandatory evacuation due to the chance of a life threatening storm surge. Now, all sharing the same message at that press conference just wrapped up about 30 minutes ago. All urging folks to take their precautions tonight and tomorrow prepare now so that you don't have to be out on the roadways and getting things done as the storm approaches. Now, just take a look at folks who are doing just that this evening before we went to this press conference, we stopped by the Harveys where line of people were getting gas tonight as well as groceries getting those hurricane snacks in so that their families are prepared. Now, a few notes from this press conference JP schools are closed Wednesday and Thursday, Grand Isle School, Fisher Middle and high School and Kerner Elementary are also closed on Tuesday. There will be no garbage service in Jefferson Parish on Wednesday. Parish offices closed to the public tomorrow and Wednesday as well. Now parish officials did say that 192 of 194 pumps are up and working and in those two spots where they're not, that would be near Pontiff Playground and the feet. There are temporary pumps in place that can handle that water. Now, we did hear from the director of emergency management, listen to what he had to say, it's a reasonable expectation that we're going to lose power for Wednesday and probably even into Thursday depending on the level of damage that's sustained from the storm. So you may not be able to get gas for a couple of days. And the parish president also stressed that there are around 50 families that are still living in trailers after hurricane Ida across the parish. She did stress that anyone living in a mobile home or trailer of that kind should head to the terry town, a playground that they are opening as a shelter starting tomorrow. Now, they did say that if you are staying home and and whether out the storm to shelter in place, they're encouraging you to do so. Starting Tuesday night reporting live in Gretna Lily Cummings that Louisiana. Ok. Thanks Lily. In Grand Isle City officials have already canceled school tomorrow and they also issued a voluntary evacuation for residents and a mandatory evacuation for trailers and campers. Mira is joining us live from Grand Isle tonight with the latest from there, Amelia, the skies are still pretty clear for now. The rain did stop but locals they're planning ahead because we know just how often this area does flood. I heard you mentioned that mandatory evacuation for trailers. We saw dozens just on the way here making their way up to higher ground and the city can mandatory evacuations for trailers and campers today. If you're going to hit the road, city officials asked that you do it sooner rather than later for your safety and for anyone in need of shelter. The Grand Isle Multiplex Center is open to anyone in need but the shelter does ask that you bring your own food, sleeping bags, pillows and blankets. Police Chief Christopher Hernandez says planning the head is the best way to stay safe through the storm thinking that they can leave at the last minute. Think again, I mean, uh, the floodgates may be closed. Uh, you may have water and highway warning, Bouchon. Um, you make sure you have all your groceries, your water, your gas for your generators, your, your flag fights. Uh Things like that. I mean, and it's probably a good idea to kind of start planning ahead. Now, if you have medication, pet food, anything that you might need that last minute run for, definitely do it. Now, before that weather picks up reporting live in Grand, I am straight and that well. Ok, thanks so much, Amelia and just like neighboring parish, New Orleans is preparing for Fran scene. This afternoon. The city services and utilities all came together to talk about the importance of being safe and being alert. Ali Curtis. She was at that press conference. Alya, what was the main message from New Orleans leaders, Katie. The city really just wants everyone to prepare. The city says they're ready for this storm and don't want New Orleans residents to panic. The city says while we may see some inches of rain, city utilities are getting ahead of it. DPW is working to clear out catch basins, but they urge residents to take a look at the ones on your street right now. Sewage and water board says 90 out of 99 pumps are working. The city is calling for people to shelter in place Wednesday and Thursday. People should really consider, uh, Wednesday and Thursday staying home, staying indoors, staying off the roads. You know, we, we do plan to close, uh, city government on Wednesday and Thursday, we plan to, uh, schools plan to close on Wednesday and Thursday. If we lose power, once the winds are down to 30 miles an hour, we'll get our teams out really quickly, really safely and have our, our city restored as quickly as possible. The city is currently finalizing their plans for sand back distribution and they should be releasing that information by tomorrow afternoon. So we'll bring that to you as soon as we know you can sign up for nola red alerts by texting nola already 277295. And if you need them in Spanish, you can text ESP to that same number. All right, thanks so much Alyssa. And within the last hour, parish has issued a mandatory evacuation for those in zone one. The parish says residents in that area in the red need to be out by 6 a.m. Wednesday. Other storm preparations are well underway in Terreon and our Eleanor to bone was there today as residents filled sandbags to protect their homes. We're getting ready for the storm, but we want to put them sandbags in front of our door in case the water rises so they don't get in our home. Jerry Beque is one of many Terrebonne parish residents sandbagging. Now our grounds so saturated from the rain we have, I'm scared that, you know, we get a lot more rain than the water can rise. Parish President Jason Bager says last week the parish got 12 inches of rain in 32 hours. It is a concern. You know, anytime anything interrupts normal life like we're dealing with and we've probably had four or five rain events this year. He says his greatest concern is how wet the ground is right now. He says floodgates are being closed and they're trying to drain out as much water as possible and our bayous are full, the ground is saturated. So we're going to continue pumping down. We pump to what we call a prestor level, but I'm out here just doing sandbags for other people. That's what we've been doing since yesterday. We probably did probably bagged about 500 residents who aren't in flood zones are picking up shovels to help those who are at risk of flooding. We're always nervous after, after Ida and so it's very fresh in our memories of, of what we've gone through with Ida. Um So people are taking it serious as the storm approaches. Those in Terrebonne parish are praying their homes will be spared. That's all we can do is pray for the best. Eleanor Toone Wwl Louisiana. Governor Jeff is issuing a statewide emergency declaration as we head into what could be a rocky next few days. Whitney Miller was at a press conference where Landry made the announcement just an hour ago. She's joining us live now from the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and emergency preparedness in Baton Rouge Whitney. Yeah, Katie. Well, that declaration will allow the state to access some resources that would be needed for preparation for a potential hurricane. The governor has also requested a presidential declaration. He told reporters today that the state doesn't want to downplay the potential risks, but they also don't want people to panic instead say it's best families start preparing if they have not already. As we've been telling you, some of those suggestions include reading over your insurance policy. So you know what's covered and getting some of those questions answered ahead of time. Also taking photos of your inventory inside and outside of your property with this storm. Uh We want everyone to go to the uh the hurricane preparation plans that they should have. Uh We've been putting P SAS out all summer long again. You can go to get a game plan.org. There's great information there as well. You have to know the risks for your area and listen to your local officials and for the for the past eight days, officials here at GOB have been monitoring this disturbance and Landry says that tomorrow, they will begin a level three activation, which just means that they will be working around the clock here, bringing the latest information, there will be a press conference again tomorrow to talk about what the state is doing in preparation for any potential risks for. Now in Baton Rouge, Whitney Miller Wwl, Louisiana, thanks so much Whitney.