Tropical Update 11PM: Flash Flood Warning for Northshore Parishes

For now. I believe we are gonna get a check on the weather, uh, in just a few minutes. I think, you know, this has been such a, are we, are we getting a check of the forecast from, from chief meteorologist Chris Franklin. Yes. All right, chief meteorologist Chris Franklin, Alexa Trish and I were just kind of discussing the 10 o'clock position of, uh, where we, uh, where, or at least where the hurricane center placed, Francine, not gonna keep beating a dead horse, but it certainly didn't jump that dramatic of a, uh, of a position north is what we were kind of discussing off camera. So, all right, I'll leave it alone at that. A lot of folks, uh, alarms went off on their phone that, uh, we, uh, the, the weather emergency alert system, wireless emergency alert system and, and it's for the continuation of the flood threat over, uh, JP Orleans and into Saint Charles out to Saint John. Now, the reason for that we're not seeing any additional rain, there is no rising water in any of these locations. It's just the ongoing issues. I think once the weather service has kind of uh uh surveyed the well, not really surveyed the area but kind of assessed just how bad the flooding is across so much of Jefferson Parish and elsewhere, they have extended the flash flood warning with the dangerous conditions. Kind of the caveat that this is a significant event with so much of those canals having flooded. Now that water is in the streets. And if you're near any of the canals, as Eleanor were showing, you cannot tell the difference between what is a street and what is a canal and even in some areas where the water looks like, you can at least see the bottom, there is no reason to be out and about at this hour trying to drive around to see where damage may be. Just wait until tomorrow, wait until tomorrow. We've got a lot of power outages so you cannot see, we can't just the depth of the water. You don't know if you're gonna start sending water into homes. A lot of folks are probably right now uh saying their prayers blessings if the water didn't get into the homes and then you go and drive through and create awake. So just stay off of the roads for the next several hours. We're really going into the overnight hours and into tomorrow. Now, here's where that heavy rainfall is at the moment. And thankfully, we're not seeing the rainfall rates nor the accumulations that we had on the South shore. Now, north of the lake. And also note that we are getting some breaks in those heavier storms and the intensity isn't nearly what it was earlier. But with that being said, there is a flash flood warning in effect for our north shore parishes, all of southern Saint Tammany Parish and southern uh Tang parish, including uh Hammond out toward Covington, Mandeville as far north as uh Pearl River as well. Also just to the north of that though, we do have some further heavy rain. It's just not quite to the levels to warrant a flood, a flood warning. However, we're looking at high water now or excuse me, high rainfall totals now across all of our north shore rivers, the storm surge is still on the rise in the lake that pushes the water into the lake. It pushes it up all of our north shore rivers and there is nowhere for that rainwater to drain. So we are likely going to start seeing the rivers overflowing in Saint Tammany Parish through the night. And tomorrow, we know it usually takes a little bit of time to see those rivers uh completely uh at least get below flood stage. So it's gonna take a little bit of time for the north shore that more of an issue with river flooding South shore. It's more from the canal flooding and the canal overflows overflowing that have caused some of these issues uh with the storm. Now, this is still a tropical storm and there are still some very gusty winds you saw from Eleanor kind of driving all around in Meowy where we've got the high water, but it's still not exactly safe to be out. And about, you still have some wind that can still cause some additional damage. And I know from a number of folks I'm seeing they've had power up until about uh 1520 30 minutes ago and they're just now losing it. So even if you have power now, that doesn't necessarily guarantee you will continue with that electricity through the night. So there is still damage occurring across the region. Just this is not the time to be outside. We had said we will wait until this is completely through and really, we're not going to be able to assess anything until early tomorrow morning. So just wait this one out. There's no reason to be out and about yet until we get further into the, uh, morning hours and a little bit of daylight on Thursday, we've had over 7.32 inches of rainfall at Kenner, over six inches of rainfall at Lakefront. Then Bell Chase, not as bad 2.5 inches of rainfall. We are approaching four inches up towards Slidell. Now, Hammond, sometimes the ham engage gives us a little bit of a fit. It's only reporting a half inch of rainfall. They've likely seen a lot more than that and certainly more to come. Now, looking at Picayune almost four inches of rainfall and we are over four inches of rainfall thus far at Gulf War. Winds are still uh windy, uh, winds are still uh picking up, I should say and gusting over 50 miles an hour in the city and sustained at near 40 miles an hour. They are diminishing but still very brisk down at Houma. Still brisk at Gonzalez and winds are increasing now across the North Shore. So the wind still very much an issue with power outages, other tree limbs coming down and just further damage is still possible through the rest of the night and into early tomorrow morning. By wake up time tomorrow morning, the center of what is left of Francine will be well, two hour north, we will have to head that dry air wrapping around so we will begin to see those improving conditions. So there is light at the end of the tunnel with the heaviest of the rainfall. Now a little bit more focused on the North Shore that will continue shifting northward after midnight. So we probably got another few hours north of the lake to deal with the heavy rain. And then as that rain continues pushing northward on the drier side, we're gonna have that mo drier air moving in rainfall will begin to subside and a much quieter rest of the night tonight. And in early tomorrow, both the GFS and the Euro are in pretty good agreement. With the rough idea of the timing. Now, the winds will continue and kind of say through the rest of the night tonight, we still going to have those strong wind gusts. Now, they are coming down, but they have been gusting up to over 50 miles an hour. So we're not, uh, we're no longer seeing the 70 but they have still been gusting up to about 50 miles an hour. Now, those will be subsiding again, but they're still pretty breezy at the moment. If you do have power, make sure that those phones are charged and if you haven't lost electricity yet, make sure that the phone is charged. Download the Wwl app. So you'll be able to keep streaming us through the night while we continue to uh basically ride out the storm with you at the moment though, looking toward downtown again. Uh one of the bridges, the lights continue to shine. It was the other one uh from the other side down river that uh the lights have gone out, we can see lights downtown and on the West Bank. So, uh so far, at least from near where our transmitter is in Tarrytown, the surrounding area does have electricity. Obviously, we've been reporting the number of areas that do no, that do not have power for right now. What thankfully is occurring is that wind shear and dry air are winning out. We are gradually as you kind of watch the satellite presentation of, uh, tropical storm Francine, it really, no longer looks like a tropical storm. Even what had been the more intense clouds with those storms on the South shore, as the storms themselves have moved northward, those cloud tops associated are getting ripped apart. So the rain on the North shore, what had been potent south is not nearly as intense as the storms continue pushing toward the north shore. And that drier air is really starting to take cold, really starting to erode a lot of the moisture, not only kind of wrapping around on the southern and eastern side, but really coming at us from the west as well, that will continue to kind of kill off a lot of that available moisture for those heavier rains. Now, still some big soaking rains on the North shore, but at least we're starting to cut into that moisture source and also a limit those towering cumulus where you get the more intense storms they are starting to wrap up. So, just a recap of radar at the moment, you still have what is relatively broad circulation? And folks have been asking are, well, are we in the eye? Well, the eye is no longer there. It is a weakening tropical storm. The what had been the structure of the eye wall is what sent in those heavy storms that basically started for landfall at 5 p.m. right through the metro area, soaking the Bayou Parishes, River Parishes, metro area. Pushing to the north shore. But as I said, they are getting those storms ripped apart. So the intensity of the rain now north of the lake is not as bad as it was south of the lake, still some very heavy rainfall. We still have the gusty winds. We still can have some damage to the overnight but conditions continuing to improve.