Cindy lashes gulf
Third day of rough weather as tropical storm brings more rain to coastal states
NEW ORLEANS — High tides in the wake of a weakening tropical depression Cindy prompted a voluntary evacuation in a coastal Louisiana town Thursday, and the storm’s effects were being felt throughout the U.S. Southeast, with intermittent bands of heavy rain, blasts of high wind and periodic warnings of possible tornadoes in multiple states.
In Alabama, where Gov. Kay Ivey urged residents to stay alert for dangerous weather, two tornado warnings were issued in the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa areas. Social media showed photographs of what appeared to be a funnel cloud near Birmingham. Earlier, authorities had issued warnings of possible tornadoes in Louisiana and Mississippi.
In the low-lying Louisiana town of Lafitte, south of New Orleans, Mayor Tim Kerner urged residents in and around the town to seek higher ground because of rising water.
“The tide’s rolling in. It’s getting to a dangerous level,” Kerner said. Streets and yards in the town were covered and Kerner worried that homes, even those in parts of town protected by levees, might be flooded. “I’m hoping not,” he added.
Cindy moved ashore as a tropical storm near the Louisiana-Texas line early Thursday while weakening to a depression by midmorning.
“Certainly it’s not been as bad as we feared. That’s the good news, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said in Baton Rouge. ”The bad news is it’s not over yet.“
As a slow-moving tropical storm that formed Tuesday in the Gulf, Cindy was blamed for one death: Authorities said a 10-year-old Missouri boy vacationing with relatives on the Alabama coast who was struck by a log washed in by a large wave.
In Louisiana, Edwards said two fishermen who were reported missing in coastal St. Mary Parish had been located and rescued.
Authorities continued to warn that driving rains being pulled out of the Gulf could still cause dangerous flash floods.
“That continues to be the threat,” said Ken Graham of the National Weather Service Office near New Orleans. “Not only around the centre of Cindy. The impact of rain can be hundreds of miles away.”
Heavy rain was forecast to spread over the Tennessee and Ohio valleys on Thursday, then move Friday and Saturday into the central Appalachians. At 10 a.m. local time Thursday, Cindy was about 265 km northwest of Morgan City and moving to the north at 20 km/h.
National Weather Service forecasters said the storm had dumped from 50 to 250 mm of rain on various spots along the Gulf Coast from southern Louisiana to the Florida panhandle as of Wednesday. Jim Stefkovich, a meteorologist with the Alabama Emergency Agency, said some parts of coastal Alabama got a foot of rain. “We are not done with the threat yet,” Stefkovich added.
Some threats could be lurking in the flood waters, Alabama state officials warned: Floating colonies of fire ants could form in the gushing surge of water, the Alabama Co-operative Extension System said in a statement.
In Ocean Springs, Miss., there was another worry in a neighbourhood where streets, and a few homes, had flooded Thursday morning.
“One of our safety concerns is alligators,” said local neighbourhood watch organizer Erin West. “We have several alligators in the nearby ponds and it’s springtime and they like to move around during springtime and everything.”