Tropical Storm Francine Weakens After Striking Louisiana as Category 2 Hurricane...

a special thank you to each of our subscribers who make this channel possible here's today's story Morgan City Louisiana AP Francine weakened Thursday after striking Louisiana as a category 2 hurricane that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses since storm surge rushing into Coastal communities and raised flood fears in New Orleans and Beyond as drenching rain spread over the northern Gulf Coast New Orleans awoke to widespread power outages and duy covered streets Just Before Sunrise street lights on some blocks were working but large swaths if the city were without power the Roar of home generators was evident outside some houses some 3 to 6 in 8 to 15 cm of rain were possible in parts of Mississippi Arkansas Tennessee Alabama Georgia and the Florida Panhandle with up to 10 in 25 cm possible in some spots and parts of Alabama and Florida forecasters said warning of the Potential Threat of scattered flash flooding as farflung as Jackson Mississippi Birmingham Alabama Memphis Tennessee and Atlanta Francine slammed the Louisiana coast Wednesday evening with 100 mph 155 kmph winds in coastal tabone Parish battering a fragile coastal region that hasn't fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes in 20120 and 2021 it then moved at a fast clip toward New Orleans pounding the city with torrential rains in New Orleans Rushing Water nearly enveloped a pickup truck in an underpass trapping the driver inside a man who lives nearby grabbed a hammer waited into the waste high water smashed the window and pulled the driver out it was all captured on live TV by a WDSU TV news crew Wednesday night after guiding the man to shore miles Crawford said I just had to go in there or do it I'm a nurse so got to save lives right Crawford and emergency room nurse at University Medical Center said seconds after the rescue in an interview later outside his home Crawford had a large bandage on his hand cut in the rescue I'm used to high stress High Lev things on a daily basis he said we deal with things like that all the time so it was nothing out of the ordinary there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries TV news broadcast from Coastal communities showed waves from nearby lakes rivers and Gulf Waters thrashing seaw walls water poured into city streets amid blinding downpours Oak and Cypress trees leaned in the high winds and some utility poles swayed back and forth as the sun rose Thursday in Morgan City about 30 Mi 50 km from where the storm's Center made landfall Jeffrey Beetle 67 emerged from the hotel room where he had sheltered for the night as the streets flooded and blasts of wind battered Town Beetle left his home in low-lying Bayou Lewis about about 10 Mi 16 km outside town on Wednesday afternoon as the rain picked up and left almost all his possessions there he had lived there for 30 years without suffering any major damage but he was worried this time would be different because his home had been right in the Hurricane's path he had loaded his car and Was preparing to return to check on his home there's nobody over on that end I can call he said I don't know what I am going to bruh hope everything's good the storm was downgraded Thursday from a tropical storm to a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph 56 kmph as it churned north-northeast over Mississippi near 12 mph 19 kmph the National Hurricane Center said frine was expected to continue weakening becoming a post-tropical cyclone later in the day and to slow down as it turns to the north over the next day moving over Central and Northern Mississippi through early Friday power outages in Louisiana a top 390,000 early Thursday in Louisiana according to the tracking site powerout.us with an additional 46,000 outages reported in Mississippi Sheltering at her mother's home just outside Morgan City Laura Leftwich said blasts of wind had swept away two large bird houses outside she had a generator powering an internet connection so she could video chat with friends holding her computer to a window to show them water overflowing in the street if the storm had been any more more intense I wouldn't have the guts to look outside said left witch 40 it's a little scary the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season Francine Drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico Waters strengthening to a category 2 storm before landfall it weakened late Wednesday to a tropical storm in addition to torrential rains there was a lingering threat of spin-off tornadoes from the storm Thursday in Florida and Alabama Louisiana governor Jeff Landry said the National Guard would fan out to parishes impacted by Francine they have food water nearly 400 highwat Vehicles about 100 boats and 50 helicopters to respond to the storm including for possible search and rescue operations since the mid 19th century some 57 hurricanes have tracked over or made landfall in Louisiana according to the weather channel among them are some of the strongest costliest and deadliest storms in US history Morgan City home to around 11,500 people sits on the banks of the aaala river in south Louisiana and is surrounded by lakes and Marsh it's described on the city's website as gateway to the Gulf of Mexico for the shrimping and oil field Industries President Joe Biden granted an emergency declaration to help Louisiana secure expedited Federal money and assistance Landry and Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves also declared states of Emergency the Mississippi Emergency Management agency said it distribut Ed more than 100,000 sandbags to the southern part of the state and the Department of Education reported a number of school district closures for Wednesday and Thursday under reported from Baton Rouge Louisiana Associated Press writers Kevin McGill in New Orleans Kurt Anderson in St Petersburg Florida and Russ bam in Savannah Georgia contributed to this story that's all for this story We upload videos every day covering many 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