Boy killed by log tossed by storm surge

Missouri tourist is first fatality blamed on Cindy

NEW ORLEANS — A boy on an Alabama beach was struck and killed Wednesday by a log washed ashore by storm surge from Tropical Storm Cindy, which spun bands of severe weather ashore from the Florida panhandle to east Texas as it churned ever closer to the Gulf coast.

Baldwin County Sheriff ’s Capt. Stephen Arthur said witnesses reported the 10-year-old boy from Missouri was standing outside a condominium in Fort Morgan when the log, carried in by a large wave, struck him. Arthur said the youth was vacationing with his family from the St. Louis area and that relatives and emergency workers tried to revive him. He wasn’t immediately identified.

It was the first known fatality from Cindy. The storm formed Tuesday and was expected to make landfall some time late Wednesday or early Thursday near the Louisiana-texas line. The worst weather was on the east side of the storm. It included drenching rains that posed flash flood threats, strong tidal surges, waterspouts and reports of possible tornadoes.

The White House said President Donald Trump was briefed on the storm Wednesday by Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert.

Also Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency, like his Alabama counterpart a day earlier. He was among authorities stressing that the storm’s danger wasn’t limited to the coast.

The storm was centered Wednesday afternoon about 135 miles south of Lake Charles, Louisiana and had top sustained winds of 50 mph. A tropical storm warning was in effect along the coast from San Luis Pass, Texas, to the mouth of the Mississippi River.

On the Mississippi coast, a waterspout came ashore in Biloxi early Wednesday. Harrison County Emergency Management Director Rupert Lacy said there were no injuries but fences, trees and power lines were damaged. In coastal Mississippi, some areas received up to 9 inches of rain.

“There’s still a long stretch of tropical moisture coming across the Gulf of Mexico,” said Alek Krautmann of the National Weather Service. “We still think there’s a heavy rain potential really through Thursday night and early Friday.”