Tropical storm Cristobal hits US Gulf coast with 50mph winds and heavy rain
Tropical Storm Cristobal came ashore on Sunday afternoon in Louisiana but generated dangerous weather much farther east, sending waves crashing over Mississippi beaches, swamping parts of an Alabama island town and spawning a tornado in Florida.
Cristobal made landfall between the mouth of the Mississippi River and the since-evacuated barrier island resort community of Grand Isle, the storm packing 50mph (85km/h) winds. With its drenching rains, the storm was expected to keep inundating the northern Gulf coast well into Monday.
In New Orleans, the question was how much rain would fall and whether its beleaguered pumping system could keep streets free of flood waters.
Coastal Mississippi news outlets reported stalled cars and trucks as flood waters inundated beaches and crashed over highways.
Forecasters said up to 12in (30cm) of rain could fall in some areas. The weather service warned that the rain would contribute to rivers flooding on the central Gulf coast and up into the Mississippi valley.
“It’s very efficient, very tropical rainfall,” said Ken Graham, the National Hurricane Center director, in a Facebook video. The storm could also generate tornadoes in parts of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
Residents of waterside communities outside the New Orleans levee system bounded by lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne were urged to evacuate Sunday afternoon amid storm surge worries.
Though Cristobal was well below hurricane strength at landfall, forecasters warned that the storm would affect a wide area stretching roughly 180 miles (290km).
In Florida, a tornado generated as the storm approached, uprooting trees and snapping power lines on Sunday afternoon south of Lake City near Interstate 75, the weather service and authorities said. It was the second tornado in two days in the state. There were no reports of injuries.
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 shopped for groceries, but said he did not 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.
Jefferson parish, a suburb of New Orleans, called for voluntary evacuations Saturday of some low-lying communities because of threatened storm surge, high tides and heavy rain.
Donald Trump agreed to issue an emergency declaration for Louisiana, Governor John Bel Edwards, said on Sunday evening in a news release.
On evacuated Grand Isle in Louisiana, a highway was underwater and much of the island was impassable, a Jefferson parish councilman, Ricky Templet, told the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate. Templet plans to stay on the island during the storm and said he had not seen water levels this high since a 2012 hurricane.
The Louisiana national guard had dozens of high-water vehicles and rescue boats ready to go across south Louisiana. Three teams of engineers were also available to help assess potential infrastructure failures, the guard said in a news release.
In Biloxi, Mississippi, a pier was almost submerged by Sunday morning. Squalls with tropical-force winds had reached the mouth of the Mississippi River and conditions were expected to deteriorate, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.