Hurricane Francine Makes Louisiana Landfall as Category 2 Storm
Hurricane Francine has officially made landfall just South of Morgan City, Louisiana, as a Category 2 Storm, and the impacts of the storm are already visible near the coast of southeast Louisiana.
Hurricane Francine strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane Wednesday afternoon and made landfall with 100 miles-per-hour winds in Terrebonne Parish, La.
Power outages are already being reported in the New Orleans Metro area, and winds are around 65 mph. The storm is moving at 17 mph as it begins to make its way through Louisiana.
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4 PM Update From The National Hurricane Center
The latest update from the National Hurricane Center, released at 4 p.m., shows Hurricane Francine making landfall as a Category 2 storm.
The eye of the storm is approaching landfall along the Louisiana coast. The NHC warns that a life-threatening storm surge and hurricane conditions are spreading along the coast.
Hurricane Fancine is moving NE at 17 mph, and we expect it to make landfall near Morgan City shortly.
Forecasters have been tracking Francine for weeks and landfall is quickly approaching. The storm has continued to shift south-east over the past 48 hours increasing the risk for hurricane conditions for Morgan City, Baton Rouge, and the New Orleans Area.
Previously, NHC reported that the storm would quickly lose power upon landfall.
Reports from Air Force Reserve and NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that Francine has changed little in intensity during the last several hours," the National Hurricane Center said in its 10 a.m. update. "Flight-level winds from the aircraft and a northwest eyewall dropsonde suggest that the maximum sustained surface winds are near 80 kt, and the central pressure is near 976 mb. The aircraft have been reporting a large elliptical eye open to the south, which matches the depiction of the eye in WSR-88D Doppler radar data from Lake Charles. Satellite imagery does show that the cloud pattern is becoming elongated from northeast to southwest due to the increasing effects of southwesterly shear."
The storm is expected to turn north slightly toward central Mississippi and make its way through Thursday.
You can track Hurricane Francine here.
Listen to wall-to-wall coverage on the radio on our sister station 105.1 or 96.5 KPEL for the latest news on Hurricane Francine.
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