NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has declared a state of emergency ahead of Tropical Storm Cindy's landfall.
The governor's spokesman Richard Carbo said Edwards signed the statewide declaration Wednesday morning.
The storm is moving closer to the Gulf Coast, where it threatens to bring a storm surge of up to 3 feet (0.91 meters).
Wednesday morning, the storm was centered about 165 miles (265 kilometers) south-southwest of Morgan City, LA, and is moving northwest near 8 mph (13 kph).
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Cindy is expected to approach the coast of southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas late Wednesday or Wednesday night and move inland Thursday.
Tropical Storm Cindy formed Tuesday in the Gulf of Mexico, hovering south of Louisiana as it churned tides and spun bands of heavy, potentially flooding rain onto the central and eastern Gulf Coast.
Workers on Grand Isle, a barrier island community south of New Orleans, worked to reinforce a rock levee protecting the island's vulnerable west side. Officials there decided against calling an evacuation but said in a statement that anyone who wanted to head for the mainland should do so as early as possible because water might eventually cover low-lying parts of the only route off the island.
The Louisiana National Guard dispatched high water vehicles and helicopters into flood-prone areas. The state said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was moving 125,000 meals and 200,000 liters of water into Louisiana.
Gov. John Bel Edwards said the advance notice of the storm gave officials time to put emergency plans in place. Louisiana was slammed with major flooding last summer from an unnamed storm that heavily damaged the Baton Rouge and Lafayette regions.
The third tropical storm of 2017, Cindy was moving slowly northwest Tuesday night and expected to reach the northern Gulf Coast late Wednesday and rumble inland Thursday over western Louisiana and eastern Texas. Forecasters warned 6 to 9 inches (15-22 cms) of rain and up to 12 inches (30 cms) in spots was the biggest threat in parts of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle.
At a news conference in New Orleans, Mayor Mitch Landrieu urged vigilance as bands of rain from the system swept over the city. Forecasts said the system could dump from a few inches to more than 12 inches (a few centimeters to more than 25 cm), depending on Cindy's development and path. At worst, the storm could flood neighborhoods outside the city's levee system and cause flash flooding even in protected areas.
"This is going to be a very serious event," Landrieu said.
In coastal Louisiana's Terrebonne Parish, Kim Chauvin said the shrimp processing businesses she and her husband run helped put out the word Monday that shrimpers should return to port and unload their catch before flood control structures closed.
"We call them, we text them, we Facebook them, we Twitter, them. Any way we can get to them," she said.
Earl Eues, an emergency official in Terrebonne, said the closing of locks and flood gates began Monday and would be completed Tuesday evening,
Parishes along the coast made sandbags — or sand and bags — available to people who wanted to protect homes and businesses.
– by AP Reporter Kevin McGill
