[ad_1]
The storm is now a hurricane. But rain is the biggest threat.
Hurricane Barry strengthened slightly, with maximum winds maintained at 75 km / h and gusts even stronger. The center of the hurricane was about 40 miles south of Lafayette, circling over Marsh Island, an uninhabited island off the coast, at about 10:30 am.
The storm moves northwest at 6 km / h, and forecasters predicted it would continue in central Louisiana on Saturday night.
The speed of the wind is not what worries much of the region. Experts predict rainfall of up to 25 inches in parts of southern Louisiana and the Mississippi coast, and the slow storm could create significant risks of flooding in inland areas such as the Grand Red Stick. Officials issued mandatory evacuation orders to communities along the coast, including parts of the Plaquemines, Jefferson and Lafourche parishes.
Tens of thousands of people have lost power.
More than 71,000 people were without electricity in Louisiana around 10 am Saturday, according to the largest energy companies in the country.
Entergy Louisiana said that about 60,000 of her clients had been affected by power outages, mainly in the south of the state. Two other power companies reported reaching 11,000 customers.
All early morning flights from Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans were canceled on Saturday. Several major airlines, including Delta, Southwest and Spirit, canceled flights all day, while others, including American, canceled all outbound flights.
Barry made a turn to the west.
Forecasters had predicted that Barry would land near Morgan City, about 20 miles off the coast. But David Naquin, director of homeland security at St. Mary's Parish, which includes the city of Morgan, said the latest reports indicated that the storm had shifted.
"It will push a little further west," he said.
It did not bring him any relief. "Every time it moves west, it's worse for us," Naquin said. "We have the worst side of the storm. It just puts us in the middle of the rain. "
By daybreak, he said, Barry's impact in the parish "was not too bad".
At dawn, in Morgan City, scenes of broken trees and other minor damage were scattered, but no injuries or deaths were reported. Electricity had been cut in about two-thirds of this city of about 12,000 inhabitants. But the torrential rains feared by city officials had not arrived.
The coastguard saved several residents of a coastal island.
The US Coast Guard rescued a dozen people on a coastal island in southeastern Louisiana by helicopter Saturday, outside of the flood protection system, said Homeland Security Bureau spokesman Mart Black. emergency measures of the parish of Terrebonne.
About two dozen people live on Jean Charles Island, Black said. The only road to the island was flooded, trapping residents who had remained there. A voluntary evacuation order had already been issued for Jean-Charles Island, as well as for other areas not protected by the lifting system.
Mr. Black, who also serves as director of the coastal restoration of the parish, said that it was not certain that other residents remain on the island, but has felt that all those who "wanted to be saved" had been taken by helicopter. He did not know if anyone should be hospitalized.
The island of Jean-Charles, made up in part of Native American tribes whose families have been established for generations, has often been evoked as a harbinger of the impact of climate change on coastal communities. The island has lost 98% of its land in the last 60 years. It is about two miles south of the 14-foot dike that protects most of the parish.
The rescue effort remains active, said NCO NCO Lexie Preston, spokesman for the Coast Guard, and other calls for help from Isle de Jean Charles.
A lift has passed in the parish of Plaquemines.
A dike has passed Highway 23 in Plaquemines Parish south of New Orleans, a spokeswoman for the parish confirmed Saturday morning.
The emergence is found in the communities of Myrtle Grove and Point Celeste, on a southeastern Louisiana spit extending into the gulf. Spokesperson, Jade Duplessis, said the dike had not been breached, but that water from the return channels located near the Mississippi had submerged it.
"These areas where we see such an overflow have been anticipated," said Duplessis. "We are prepared for that."
In New Orleans, residents were waiting to see if their complex system of pump and lift protection would withstand the storm.
The city, which is largely below sea level, relies on dozens of massive drainage pumps to flush water from its streets and miles of federal dikes to block storm surges. But aging pumps have proven vulnerable to power outages and losses in recent years, while spring floods have pushed the river higher in recent months, almost at the top of the dikes.
FEMA was already out of breath before Barry hit.
Three years of devastating natural disasters have reduced the ranks of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, potentially putting a strain on its ability to help the victims of the storm.
The agency's records show that less than a quarter of the 13,654 people in the FEMA-qualified police force are available to help deal with Barry or any other emergency, because the others are deployed elsewhere or are unavailable. That's down the 34% were available at this stage in 2018 and 55% two years ago.
"I'm worried," said Elizabeth A. Zimmerman, who led FEMA's disaster operations under the Obama administration. "It's a concern, to make sure there are enough people to answer."
[[[[Learn more here about concerns about staff shortages at FEMA.]
Extreme rain is compatible with climate change research.
The Gulf Coast has of course always had hurricanes. But the extreme rains associated with this storm, which are expected to be 10 to 20 inches or more, are part of emerging research suggesting that climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of storms accompanied by heavy rainfall.
A warming atmosphere can retain more moisture and reject it in the form of heavy rainfall – a phenomenon observed not only during storms like Barry, but also during record floods recorded throughout much of the Midwest this year.
These flood waters have fed the Mississippi River, keeping it flooding in several places. The Corps of Army Engineers has opened the Bonnet Carré spillway over New Orleans twice in a season for the first time since its construction in 1931.
[[[[Discover how hurricanes become wetter and humid as the climate changes.]
Richard Fausset has been reported in New Orleans and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs in New York. The reports were provided by Emily Lane and Beau Evans of New Orleans; Dave Montgomery of Morgan City, La .; Christopher Flavelle from Washington; and John Schwartz from New York.
[ad_2]
Source link