Lousiana is still struggling with widespread flooding, but she has been spared by Barry's anger. here's why



[ad_1]

Barry, who touched down Sunday, quickly turned into a tropical storm and has been invading Louisiana ever since.

Even as a weak tropical depression Monday, Barry still pours heavy rain over parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, causing a wave of new flood watches.

But fears of devastating storm and catastrophic floods have not materialized. According to CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen, there are several reasons for this.

"The storm surge in populated areas such as New Orleans has not reached the level required to cause major problems," he said. "That being said, there was a skyrocketing 7 feet in some areas, which was actually higher than expected."

As for the flood, "it was a very strange hurricane – I think the strangest thing I've ever covered," Hennen said.

"Most of the moisture, with rainfall reaching more than 20 cm, stayed longer than expected in the Gulf of Mexico, when it shifted into the interior." , the storm was weakened, so the total precipitation was maintained Hurricane Harvey, which was outperforming, this storm was a little underperforming. "

But the threat of flooding is not over.

"Dangerous Floods" coming soon

Barry is expected to drop another 4 to 6 inches of rain on Monday in central Louisiana and the southwestern tip of Mississippi.

"Sudden dangerous floods are likely to occur in this region this morning," said the National Hurricane Center.

Parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky will be hit by an extra 2 to 4 inches of rain.

All this new rain means that Barry will leave some places with a total of 15 inches of rain by the time the remnants of the storm move to the Ohio Valley in the middle of the week.

"It's really a doubling for cities like New Orleans and Baton Rouge," said CNN meteorologist Michael Guy.

But Louisiana's governor, John Bel Edwards, said he was "extremely grateful that the expected rains and floods did not materialize". He clarified that all state offices are open Monday except in three parishes where there are still power outages.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said many areas of town life would resume Monday, including public transit and garbage collection services.

Upset leaps

Although not as destructive as expected, Barry has submerged some dikes and caused many power outages.

A man stands in floodwaters in front of a house near Lake Pontchartrain.

Several parishes, including Terrebonne, Lafourche, Jefferson and St. Mary's, were flooded when water broke the dikes on Saturday.

Barry also shut down 16 roads and 24 bridges over the weekend, said the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

And more than 153,000 electricity customers in Louisiana lost electricity because of high winds and trees felled on Sunday.

Entergy Louisiana said she brought crews from all over the country to help restore power.

The storm "looked like a train"

The coastal community of Jean Charles Island, Louisiana, has already lost 98% of its land – before Barry collapses.

After the storm hit shore on Saturday, some residents were still stranded on Sunday as heavy flooding forced the roads to remain closed.

At the Pac Shack restaurant, owner Amanda Ekiss said the water's height was over 10 feet this weekend.

In another island community, the parish of Iberia, violent winds destroyed buildings and left some at the studs.

Joseph Colbert said that he was in his shelter with his brother when the walls of his house were ripped off by high winds Saturday night.

Barry tore the roof of a house in Morgan City, Louisiana.

"The wind was blowing very hard," he said. "It sounded like a train for me."

Sunday morning, his roof had also disappeared, leaving his 40-year-old house uninhabitable.

But he had enormous consolation: "We had our lives."

Haley Brink of CNN, Darran Simon, Natasha Chen, Matt Gannon and Pamela Kirkland contributed to this report.

[ad_2]
Source link