Governor declares state of emergency as Mississippi braces for Hurricane Francine

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As Hurricane Francine barreled toward the Louisiana coast, officials in Mississippi and Louisiana implored people on Tuesday to prepare in the short time left before the storm comes ashore as a hurricane.

Forecasters said Francine’s landfall was expected Wednesday afternoon or evening as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 96 to 110 mph (155 to 175 kph). Ahead of the storm, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency, he announced Tuesday afternoon.

A hurricane warning was in effect along the Louisiana coast from the border with Texas eastward to Grand Isle, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of New Orleans, and a tropical storm warning extended eastward from there to the Alabama/Florida state line, according to the National Hurricane Center. Mississippi’s coastal counties were under a tropical storm warning on Tuesday.

A storm surge warning stretched from just east of Houston to the Mississippi/Alabama state line. Such a warning means there’s a chance of life-threatening flooding.

By the middle of Tuesday afternoon, Francine was still a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center. The system was located about 380 miles (610 kilometers) southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, and was moving northeast at 9 mph (14 kph).

The storm is moving over extremely warm Gulf waters that will serve as fuel to strengthen it. Water temperatures are about 87 degrees (31 degrees Celsius) where Francine is located, said Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science.

“The ocean heat content averaged over the entire Gulf is the highest it’s been on record for the date,” McNoldy wrote on his blog.

Across much of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi, residents boarded up windows, filled sandbags and made last-minute preparations ahead of Francine’s arrival. In Harrison County, Mississippi Department of Transportation officials removed draw bridge gates.

In downtown New Orleans, cars and trucks were lined up for blocks to collect sandbags from the parking lot of a local YMCA, whose CEO Erika Mann said Tuesday that 1,000 bags of sand had already been distributed by volunteers.

“I love that these are community people that came out,” Mann said. “It’s a beautiful effort to do what we do in New Orleans, we’re resilient and we come together to help in the times we need each other.”

One resident picking up sandbags was Wayne Grant, 33, who moved to New Orleans last year and was nervous for his first potential hurricane in the city. The low-lying rental apartment he shares with his partner had already flooded out in a storm the year before and he was not taking any chances this time around.

“It was like a kick in the face, we’ve been trying to stay up on the weather ever since,” Grant said. “We’re super invested in the place, even though it’s not ours.”

Francine is the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. There’s a danger of life-threatening storm surge as well as damaging, life-threatening hurricane-force winds, said Brad Reinhart, a senior hurricane specialist at the hurricane center.

There’s also the potential for 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain with the possibility of 12 inches (30 centimeters) locally across much of Louisiana and Mississippi through Friday morning, Reinhart said. That heavy rainfall could also cause considerable flash and urban flooding.

Stengle reported from Dallas. Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed to this story.

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