Tropical Storm Cindy threatens Gulf Coast area

Louisiana coast, east Texas prepare for flash flooding.

Tropical NEW ORLEANS — Storm Cindy formed Tuesday in the Gulf of Mexico and began churning heavy rain bands toward the northern Gulf Coast, where Louisiana shuttered flood gates and parts of three other states also braced for a risk of flash flooding.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a state of emergency because of the threat of torrential rains and other severe weather, including dangerous high tides and rip currents. Double red flags snapped in the wind on the public beach at Gulf Shores in her state, warning visitors to stay out of the pounding surf.

The third tropical storm of 2017, Cindy was expected to reach the northern Gulf Coast late today and then rumble inland over western Louisiana and eastern Texas on Thursday. Forecasters warned that rainfall totaling 6 to 9 inches and up to 12 inches in isolated spots was the biggest threat in southern parts of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle.

Already some flooding from outlying rain bands was reported on Alabama’s Dauphin Island and flood control locks and gates were being closed along Louisiana’s bayou-marbled coast as Cindy hovered nearly stationary — still well offshore. Officials in various coastal Louisiana and Mississippi communities handed out sandbags as rain threatened low-lying areas along rivers and bayous.

The National Weather Service in Miami said Cindy was located early Tuesday afternoon about 265 miles south of Morgan City, Louisiana — or about 355 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas. The cyclone had top sustained winds of 45 mph and was nearly stationary for hours, but was expected to resume a crawl toward the northwest in coming hours.

A tropical storm warning was in effect from High Island, Texas, to the Pearl River’s mouth along the Louisiana-Mississippi line. A tropical storm watch covered a large swath of the upper Texas coast from west of High Island to San Luis Pass.

Rain and tides, rather than wind, were considered the main danger from the system.

In New Orleans, Mayor Mitch Landrieu urged vigilance as bands of rain from the system swept over the city. Forecasts said the system could dump a few inches to more than 10 inches, depending on its development and path. At worst, the storm could flood neighborhoods outside the city’s levee system and cause flash flooding even in protected areas.

“This is going to be a very serious event,” Landrieu said at a news conference.

In coastal Louisiana’s Terrebonne Parish, Kim Chauvin said the shrimp processing businesses she and her husband run helped put out the word Monday that shrimpers should return to port and unload their catch before flood control structures closed.

“We call them, we text them, we Facebook them, we Twitter them. Any way we can get to them,” she said.

Earl Eues, an emergency official in Terrebonne, said the closing of locks and flood gates began Monday and would be completed Tuesday evening,

Parishes along the coast made sandbags — or sand and bags — available to people who wanted to protect homes and businesses. While the northern Gulf Coast braced for Cindy, the southern Caribbean region was dealing with Tropical Storm Bret, which unleashed heavy flooding, knocked out power and ripped off several roofs in Trinidad and Tobago.

Bret is forecast to weaken and become a tropical depression today.