High winds and rain hit as storm nears coast

Heavy winds and rains hit the northern Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Cristobal crawled toward Louisiana.

NEW ORLEANS » Tropical Storm Cristobal lashed the northern Gulf Coast with high winds and drenching rain Sunday, heading toward a Louisiana landfall while swamping roads in Mississippi, prompting tornado watches in Alabama and spinning off a twister that uprooted trees in Florida.

Residents of waterside communities outside the New Orleans levee system — bounded by lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne — were urged to evacuate Sunday because of their vulnerability to an expected storm surge.

Water swamped the only road to Grand Isle — the resort barrier island community south of New Orleans where a mandatory evacuation took effect Saturday. It was a similar story in low-lying parts of Plaquemines Parish at the state’s southeastern tip, said shrimper Acy Cooper. “You can’t go down there by car,” he said Sunday of one marina in the area. “You have to go by boat.”

Cristobal packed top sustained winds of 50 miles per hour winds nearing the coast but was not expected to reach hurricane strength. Forecasters warned, however, that the storm would affect a wide area stretching roughly 180 miles.

Sen. John Kennedy said in a news release that President Donald Trump agreed to issue an emergency declaration for Louisiana as the storm approached the coast. Gov. John Bel Edwards had issued a state emergency declaration Thursday.

In Florida, a tornado — the second in two days in the state as the storm approached — touched down about 3:35 p.m. south of Lake City near Interstate 75, said meteorologist Kirsten Chaney in the weather service’s Jacksonville office. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The storm splintered and uprooted trees and downed power lines.

Rain fell intermittently in New Orleans famed French Quarter on Sunday afternoon, but the streets were nearly deserted, with many businesses already boarded up due to the coronavirus.

Daniel Priestman said he didn’t see people frantically stocking up as he did before other storms. He said people may be “overwhelmed” by the coronavirus and recent police violence and protests.

They seemed “resigned to whatever happens — happens,” he said.

Tropical storm warnings stretched from Intracoastal City in Louisiana to the Okaloosa-Walton County line in Florida, the National Hurricane Center said.