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A couple is riding a bicycle in a flooded street after Tropical Storm Barry landed in Mandeville, Louisiana on July 14, 2019. Tropical Storm Barry agitated the US state of Louisiana, bringing more rain and rain. possible tornadoes in the area, even weakened. After briefly becoming the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, Barry was downgraded to a tropical storm after landing on Saturday. He nevertheless moved to the inland with a serious punch. (Seth HERALD / AFP)
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(AFP) – Barry's still weakened Sunday when the storm swept the WE state of Louisiana, resulting in heavy rains and the possibility of floods and tornadoes.
Until now, there has been no deaths reported to Barry in Louisiana or in neighboring states, which had briefly become the first hurricane of the Atlantic season before the National Center hurricanes only retrograde it into a tropical storm and then a tropical depression.
Nevertheless, as the storm moved inland on a northern runway, she took a serious punch.
Louisians have kept a cautious eye on rivers and cbads heavily inflated by torrential rains, following an extremely rainy season further upstream of the Mississippi River.
It's "the wettest year we've had since 1895," Major General Richard Kaiser, chairman of the Mississippi River Commission, told Fox News.
He added that the broad river is "the highest level of all time" – just below the flood stage.
New Orleans, the country's largest city, was hit by heavy rains, but its airport was able to return to normal service after canceling all flights on Saturday.
The fear that the dike system protecting New Orleans may be compromised is diminished.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who a day earlier had urged residents not to be complacent, said Sunday at a press conference that "we have weathered the storm." We are in luck we have been spared. "
– The dangers remain –
At 4:00 pm Sunday (9:00 pm GMT), the maximum winds sustained by the storm had dropped to 55 km / h. It was located north-northeast of Shreveport, in western Louisiana, and was heading to Arkansas, the National Hurricane Center announced.
"Further weakening is expected as the center moves further inland and Barry is expected to degenerate into a residual low pressure system by Monday night," said NHC.
WE Senator Bill Cbadidy said about the storm on Fox News: "We have seen worse".
Evacuation orders had already been issued in several localities, including Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans, where nearly 10,000 residents had been ordered to leave.
On Sunday, members of the National Guard were still erecting sand-filled gates to contain the floods after "the high water exceeded sea levels" in Myrtle Grove, Plaquemines town, the official said. information officer of the parish Jade Duplessis.
Pete Gaynor, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told Fox that "there are still living conditions in danger".
"Rain is the threat," he added, noting that the floodwaters further upstream of the congested Mississippi will move south in the coming days.
Many coastal areas have remained alert.
Tornadoes are possible in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee, the NHC announced.
Rainfall estimates have further declined to 8 to 13 centimeters (3 to 5 inches) in south-central Louisiana, but rivers and cbads have almost reached full capacity.
In southern Louisiana, Barry's strong winds scattered tree branches and knocked down power lines, leaving around 100,000 people without electricity. The reporters have seen localized floods and seriously inflated waterways.
– Katrina's memories –
The eye of the storm touched down Saturday in the small town of Intracoastal.
The rivers exceeded their dikes in several places, including part of the Terrebonne coastal parish.
The Atchafalaya River has swallowed a pedestrian promenade at the water's edge in Morgan City.
For many, the storm has revived the unpleasant memories of Hurricane Katrina.
While thousands of Louisians fled for safety as the storm approached, others hid to cross it, sometimes defying mandatory evacuation orders.
On the enormous south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in northeastern New Orleans, Mike Pisciotta, a 72-year-old retired postal employee, ignored Barry's local effects as he stood on the side of the lake.
"This has not really been done," he said, while acknowledging that other areas had been hit harder. "I guess we're lucky."
Gerard Braud, a 61-year-old communications consultant, said on the northern boundary of Pontchartrain that there was 1.5 meters of water beneath his elevated lakeside home.
"It has spread to some places, five, six or seven blocks from the lake," he said, adding, "The water level is the biggest threat in a lake. storm as weak ".
Not far away, Michael Forbes, 61, a prosecutor, said lake levels were much higher than normal because of the wind blowing in the Gulf and the Mississippi River.
"People are used to it and they are afraid of it too," he said. "Every year, it's a worry."
In 2005, Katrina – the most costly and deadly hurricane of recent years WE history – submerged about 80% of New Orleans after the failure of the dike system, making about 1,800 dead and more than 150 billion worth of damage.
© Agence France-Presse
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