Storm pushing closer to Louisiana coast
NEW ORLEANS – Tropical Storm Barry was on track to hit the Louisiana coast early Saturday as a Category 1 hurricane, but the primary danger is not from high wind but heavy rain and a dangerous storm surge threatening lowlying coastal areas and the levees of New Orleans.
Across Louisiana, National Guard troops and rescue crews were stationed with boats and high-water vehicles while utility repair crews with bucket trucks moved into position. And homeowners sandbagged their property or packed up and left.
As of 5 p.m. EDT, Barry was 70 miles south-southeast of Morgan City, Louisiana, and was crawling through the Gulf of Mexico at 6 mph. It was expected to shift to a northwesterly track late Friday before heading north and going ashore over the central or southeastern coast of Louisiana early Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
Barry was packing sustained winds near 65 mph, only 9 mph shy of the hurricane designation of 74 mph. Forecasters said it was still possible Barry would remain a tropical storm when it went ashore.
Authorities said the timing of Barry’s arrival is critical. “The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” the weather service said.
If it hits at high tide, the weather service said, water could swell 3 to 6 feet above ground from the Atchafalaya River to Shell Beach, 2 to 4 feet from Shell Beach to the Mississippi-Alabama state line, and 2 to 4 feet at Lake Pontchartrain.
Heavy rain packs the biggest danger over the region through the weekend. Forecasters said up to 20 inches is expected over southeast Louisiana, including New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Alexandria, and in southwest Mississippi, with as much as 25 inches in some isolated areas.
The weather service said the rains “are expected to lead to dangerous, lifethreatening flooding over portions of the central Gulf Coast into the Lower Mississippi Valley.”
Around New Orleans, the heavy rain and a storm surge could mean up to 3 feet of water in an already swollen Mississippi River, pushing it to 19 feet above sea level, close to the levee system’s 20foot limit in some places.
A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, however, expressed confidence that the levee system could handle the rapid rise, even if water should spill over in some spots.
“We’re confident with the integrity – the levees are extremely robust and designed to handle a lot of pressure,” Corps spokesman Ricky Boyett said.
Tornadoes were also a threat in southeastern Louisiana, AccuWeather meteorologist Dan Kottlowski said.
Gov. John Bel Edwards, warning of a “significant weather event,” said he was prepared to activate up to 3,000 personnel to deal with the storm.
President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for the state late Thursday to provide disaster relief.
For residents of New Orleans, the message from authorities was to hunker down. Mayor Latoya Cantrell noted that the city orders evacuations only for Category 3 hurricanes or stronger. “Therefore, sheltering in place is our strategy,” the mayor said.