we're staying in the US and a powerful hurricane has just made landfall in the southern US state of Louisiana authorities there have ordered evacuations in one County and a warning of flooding as a result of a possible 3 meter storm surge hurricane Francine has grown in strength and is now packing sustained winds of more than 155 kmers an hour state and federal governments have declared a state of emergency that's to allow a faster response to the storm a meteorologist and Atmospheric scientist Matthew kuchi has more on the phone for us Matthew uh hi there people are bracing for this hurricane tell us exactly what's expected from Hurricane Francine and how dangerous could it be yeah most definitely so right now I'm a little bit Southwest of New Orleans which is a very big city with several million people and they're bracing for winds over about 120 to 130 km per hour this storm was expected to weaken because it was drawing in dry air instead it strengthened at the last minute its structure improved and now I at my location Southwest of the city have seen winds gusting over 130 140 km per hour and that same eyewall the Ring of furious wind towards the middle of the storm is working north towards New Orleans power is out across the area streets are flooded the water is rising above roadways because in this part of Louisiana near the Bayou south of the city sea level is basically at the level of where people's homes are most of the ground is only about two meters above sea level and you said you know up to a three meter surge that might be enough to inundate Coastal communities and the winds are taking a long time to die down folks will see up to about four hours of fierce winds so it will get worse especially in the City of New Orleans before it gets better okay so it's strengthened at the last minutes expected to get worse Matthew when you think of Louisiana and hurricanes you can't help but think of Katrina back in 2005 is the scale and strength of this hurricane any anything like that fortunately no we think that this one is moving a little bit faster so it won't have as much time to sort of cause as much damage the winds are markedly weaker even though this is still a strong Storm and The Surge won't be nearly as bad back in 2005 The Surge toppled top the levies and that was a big issue you know this part of Louisiana is so hurricane prone back in August of 2021 they saw Ida Ida brought winds over 220 km per hour and so they've cleaned up a lot of the damage but when you drive down here it's it's weird seeing damage from the last hurricane as you're going into another hurricane this baguer area has been hit so many times before and unfortunately they're being hit again tonight that was meteorologist Matthew kuchi on the latest with Hurrican Francine thanks so much Matthew thank you