WBRZ Storm Station Meteorologist Balin Rogers discusses the eye of Hurricane Francine in Morgan City

rain is really picked up here pretty much over the last few minutes the winds are picking up Flags starting to blow a little bit still nothing too bad we've been gusting right around I've have not looked at official observations but if I had to guess right around 40 to 45 miles per hour as a Max Gus few of those tree limbs that come down but uh yeah what is radar looking like now Josh is that eyewall coming on Shore kind of keeping an eye on that here and I was just telling Michael and Sylvia at the desk that I believe you're about to get the northern eyewall here momentarily at least the strongest band associated with Francine is coming your way I know you you're checking radar on your phone um and you've made some observations out there we're seeing some offshore gusts that maybe were as high as 80 or 90 miles per hour of course land friction is going to reduce that but um I can see the Sheets of Rain behind you and and velocity is probably saying that you've got 30 40 50 m per hour winds heading in your direction you'll get the brunt of this storm within the next 60 to 90 minutes I'd say yeah it's definitely starting to go down here Hill real quick wow rain rates really picking up recently uh Flags really blowing behind me I see Sheets of Rain curtains in the distance and uh with my experience with hurricane eyeballs I've been in quite a few things are going to go downhill very quickly here and it's going to be like a night and day difference from the rest of the storm yeah it might have been Gusty beforehand a few gusts in that 40 to 45 mile per hour range but once that eyewall comes toore that's where you see those Max sustained winds and that's also where you see the max gusts in the system uh when you get you know a 90 mph cat one hurricane those 90 mph winds that is not outside uh in the outer bands that's going to be right around the core of the storm and that is exactly what we're about to go through here uh we're in the outer iall right now uh but conditions are going to get uh much worse here uh over the next hour to hour and a half and it could get pretty bad here wide out conditions Downing trees and Downing a few power lines as well uh but I'm going track it with here try to stay on air as long as possible hopefully we don't lose connection here as the iall does move ashore as there strongest Winds of Francine about to make landfall here in Morgan City and then slowly weaken as it moves to the north live in Morgan City hold on I I want to keep the conversation going with you here a little bit longer here you're getting the most interesting weather we have in the in the viewing area right now couple of questions and we do have radar up next to you and it's loop it's a looping radar and it shows that that that flood warning that you're under right now as well so we'll talk about a few of those things first of all uh set the stage for us as to where you are we can tell there's like a parking lot behind you I know you moved away from the achaia river so what is your location right now well we're pretty much it looks like this might be uh the mayor's office some sort of governmental building I'm not sure exactly but it's a very secure building uh pretty much blocked from majority of the Winds with this building right in front of me winds are blowing uh east to west right now and we're getting blocked uh by this building but I tell you what rain rates really increased here over the last few minutes and uh winds seem to be increasing as well but not too bad just yet but like I've been mentioning is definitely going to increase Josh all right and then we have uh on the graphic next to you we're scrolling the flood warning that's essentially along the Highway 90 Corridor that's not surprising I mean we just don't want folks on the road in that area at all right now anyway speaking to those those High rain rates you said we're seeing the Sheets of Rain behind you and that flash flood warning from your area are you seeing you know standing water become increasingly a problem have you noticed any flooding in your movements around Morgan City day to get to the safe spot you are now not yet um we made that movement a few hours ago so that was before some of this heavy rain uh has started to come down but the heaviest rain rates with this system is going to be with that eyewall as it moves through so that's probably when we're going to get the most around amount of rain in a short time I'm thinking the National Weather Service uh issuing this warning expecting for the rain rates to really increase with the iall of Francine as it does move on Shore uh it's going to get pretty busy here basically the heaviest rain and the heaviest Winds of the system about to move into Morgan City yeah and actually we're seeing that uh I is just now trying to breach the coast and the I'd say at the St Mary tabone Parish line and of course there's as the crow flies probably about 40 miles between you and the immediate Coast so doing the math on the speed of this system that's getting your way here within that next hour or so talked about rain I before I let you go and we're going to check in really frequently here as you get the worst of these conditions I want to talk a little bit more about the wind there we go he's just getting you're getting a gust right there holding onto the Hat what have you seen moving around in those winds today balen uh so far we've been gusting to Tropical Storm Force so it's been mainly I haven't seen any trees down it's been those like 1 to 3 in maybe a little bit bigger tree limbs you get a big gust com through and the tree limbs start blowing off the trees uh flag pole moving around a lot uh just had a nice little gust a second ago but so far again I haven't driven around the city in the past few hours but in my immediate area seeing a lot of tree limbs down but no large trees but I do think that's going to change and then what about uh uh power outages I mean you don't have the numbers in front of you but if you heard any power flashes if you had any Transformers going yet uh I haven't heard any Transformers or seen any uh I know the power in this building right in front of me they still have power but this building over here their looks like their generator kicked on so I'm be interested to see if they lost power and also I've gotten reports uh from a few different people that their hotels have already lost lost power so don't have the official numbers but definitely looking like we're already starting to see a few power outages around the area