Tropical Storm Francine: Team coverage as the storm heads for Louisiana

Starting at four. It's the big story. We are tracking tropical storm Francine right now. Storms set to make landfall tomorrow in Louisiana. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Jason Bristol and I'm Reika Mutara. Thanks for joining us. This is a live look here at Bolivar Peninsula courtesy of Salt. A recon. There is a voluntary evacuation order in place. Now we are not expecting a direct hit but officials, there are taking preventative measures and within the last 30 minutes, Governor Abbott giving an update from Beaumont on how the state is preparing. Your expectation is that either no one will lose power or in the event that power lines get blown down by wind that that power is restored within hours, not within days. Texans should not have to go with that power for days on end. And in response to what should be a relatively uh minimal storm compared the governor there referencing Hurricane Barrel and how 2 million Center point customers lost power power that wasn't restored for days. Center point saying yesterday and today it is better prepared this time around. It's good news. We do have team coverage as we monitor Francine with live looks across our coast. Thanks to saltwater recon, meteorologist, Pat Clan and Kim Castro are tracking the storm and Maria Aguilera live on Bolivar Peninsula as well. We're going to start with you. You just got an update from the National Hurricane Center. What's the latest? Yes. So we're getting updates now every few hours because there are tropical storm warnings, hurricane warnings and watches that are posted for the coast. So once those products go out, the hurricane center starts giving us these updates more often. This is a pretty big update 4 p.m. but no big changes. Still a tropical storm winds still sustained at 65 MPH. Notice the movement here and this is really important for us. It's moving northeast, it's not moving north, it's moving away from us out towards the Louisiana coastline. So I just want to say first and foremost, this is not going to be another barrel. Let's take you to the forecast cone. We do expect this to become a category one hurricane during the overnight. And right now the forecast is for the storm to maintain that category one status on approach to the Louisiana coastline. Notice the time stamp here Wednesday tomorrow at one o'clock in the afternoon. Storm is just about to make landfall across the Louisiana coastline, passing well off to our east and then eventually moving on shore and weakening as it goes through the middle part of the upcoming week. So here's a look at future track and watch what the model does. It keeps the bulk of the storm well to south and east. We could see a couple of showers here as we get into tomorrow morning. But notice the core of the moisture really wrapping around the center of the storm as it gains strength on approached Louisiana coastline down. Pour storm is possible for us here in Houston, but it's really going to be Louisiana that catches the brunt, not just of the rain, but also of the wind. Here's the wind field with the storm as it makes that approach again, the highest wind staying out over the Gulf and then eventually moving on shore as we get into Wednesday. So the strongest windfield does stay offshore and to the east. That's the overview we've got meteorologist Kim Castro now to give us a little bit of a closer look on what's going to happen locally here at home. Yeah, the strongest wind staying offshore light pat showed us it. We'll take it over to max two. I'll show you exactly what the wind forecast is going to be for us here. Locally. We're expecting a couple of breezy gusts right during the overnight hours to early Wednesday gusted around 30 miles an hour for the coastline but still much more manageable than what Louisiana is going to experience. And that stretches across the board. We have a coastal flood warning until tomorrow afternoon for the threat of a storm surge between 1 to 3 feet. It's 5 to 10 ft for Louisiana. So still watching this forecast closely. We're under a weather impact alert day all day today, mainly for the coastal impacts. But as we get more updates from the National Hurricane Center, we'll be able to update you brand new right now. At four o'clock, the tropical storm watch has been dropped for our coastline. Like I mentioned, this is really a Louisiana event and a big threat all along the Louisiana coastline. Main takeaways for us here. We've got reduced rain chances because we're on the clean side of this hurricane. We've got some threats to the coast but remember now, not even a tropical storm watch for us, the breezy gusts that will get 20 to 30 miles an hour. I'll be back to explain why the positioning of Francine is bringing us these minimal impacts when I see you back here in a couple of minutes. All right, Kim. Thank you so much. Now to the Bolivar Peninsula where there is a voluntary evacuation order in effect. Officials, there are concerned about tidal surges and how those impact state highway 87 which is the only way to leave the peninsula other than the ferry. Now, Maria Aguilera joins us, live from High Island with how Galveston County is preparing. So, Maria, how is it looking where you are? Yeah. Well, right now we're actually along highway 87 right next to the shore and you can take a look at how choppy and rough the water is here. Strong wind gust as well. You can see my hair blowing in the wind and those are really the reasons why emergency officials are worried about the storm surge with how close the water is to the road that could cause some serious issues. Now, as we were driving down here earlier today, about an hour ago, we saw tech stock crews reinforcing the barrier here along the highway. It's one of the biggest concerns right now. I'm told most major storms will cause a surge here this time. They're expecting 1 to 3 ft and rainfall of about an inch and a half. And because highway 87 is at sea level, it can quickly become impassable, which is the reason why a voluntary evacuation order is in effect, you won't be able to leave and we may not be able to respond to emergencies. We may not be able to get emergency medical services to you. And if we do, we probably can't transport you to a hospital. So that's good. Ok. Galveston County Judge Mark Henry tells me that voluntary evacuation will likely. And early tomorrow if Francine continues to move east, the good news as him and Pat mentioned is that conditions seem more favorable for us here in the area. But emergency officials obviously still don't want people especially in this area to let their guard down just yet Now coming up at five, we hear from residents from this area and how they're preparing for the storm life from High Island Maria. You, all right, Maria. Thank you so much for that update. In the meantime, Chambers County officials want their residents to prepare for Francine despite there being no direct hit to that area. Sandbags are avail available at Winnie Stowell Park Airport Road and mccollum Park. We're told residents should bring their own shovels in the meantime, on our website, it is packed with important reminders as we continue to track francine, you can find the very latest forecast and how power companies are preparing.