a [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] try that again I am not going to store from the beginning but wel welcome to the Emergency Operations Center uh with us today I'm I'm glad to have uh members of our community uh First Responders including the Sheriff's Office local uh law enforcement agencies Municipal police departments our fire districts uh representatives of our utilities Electric utilities Cleo Washington St Tam electric and enty representatives of Senator Cassidy's office and uh our other Congressional leaders representatives of our State Legislative delegation our Northshore delegation and quite a few members of Team tamon the directors of our departments at St tamon Parish government that play such a big role in um managing the day-to-day operations here at St tamy Paris government uh the mayor mandaville thank you for being here uh Chris massil with st tamy Corp and and Keith Esperon I know I may not have received everybody or Annon everybody but thank you for being here uh as I go through this questions will be uh available after after uh these comments uh you'll be welcome to ask questions to to Clint myself or to uh even the electric uh utility providers are available to to answer questions in the next few hours we're expecting up to 60 mph wind gust possibly 4 to 6 feet storm surge in coastal areas and flash flooding with several inches of rain projected in isolated areas the eye of Francine is projected to be just to the west of us now is the time to stay where you are or get to a safe location of course time is ticking and the time frame is uh increasingly reduced please stay off the roads let our First Responders do their jobs plan to stay where you are until tomorrow morning we are prepared for this this is something that our team tamon and that our local First Responders and all those that are in this room represented are focused on year round however strong winds can turn turn our beautiful Tall Pine trees into hazards we do expect power outages Fallen trees may be on down lines this is why it's critically important to stay off the roads this morning we activated our Emergency Operations Center which we are now in this location here and we'll be here throughout the storm all essential Crews law enforcement First Responders DOD utility Representatives community and faith-based groups are here ready to assist you we have closed officially our sandbag pickup locations we've urging you to stay off the roads and if you don't have your sandbags by now it may be uh difficult to do so we advise our citizens if you need assistance during or after Francine please call our number 985 898 2700 we have call takers on standby ready to assist you let me repeat 985 898 2700 we also have a web page full of resources and information for our citizens stpgov.org storm stpgov.org storm we have strategically placed our Public Works and utilities Crews and Equipment across the parish once the sun rises in the morning and it's safe we will deploy to open up our parish as quickly as possible please stay off the roads during this time to allow our crews to work our electric utility providers are here Cleo West a tam electric I'm sorry Wasington St Tammy Electric Co-op and eny are here as well they have a they have placed assets across the parish in strategic locations and are ready to respond quickly and safely as soon as we're able to open up the roadways for them in the morning our Engineers are monitoring the river levels the chuna river the Boga flyer the bachetta and the Pearl are the main rivers where we have gauges at this time none of the rivers are expected to rise to concerning levels however that can change quickly with strong winds and heavy rains we will continue to monitor the situation and let you know if that does change as a reminder and I mentioned this yesterday please bring your pets indoors and make sure they're wearing a collar in the event they happen to slip out of your home uh it will Al always be helpful for that now and in the days to come generators will be important for many families that again was mentioned yesterday the importance of staying safe and making sure that you that the generators are a safe distance from your homes during Hurricane Ida 3 years ago generators running generators caused most of the injuries that were sustained so please take steps to protect your families and please know that at this time we see that service stations convenience stores and our supermarkets are closing early so their employees may get off the roads into the safety of their homes so we encourage uh again we can't encourage you enough to stay off the roads we assure you that we're well prepared for this storm we've been through bigger stronger storms and have a good idea of what to expect with Francine we certainly hope and pray that the impact or minimal I'm going to reserve comments at uh at the end after questions and answers to to give followup uh phone numbers re re reinforce the phone numbers and website information uh but in the meantime I'm going to ask Clint ory to uh give an update from what he has learned from our First Responders to give further information Clint sure thank you president um so as president Cooper mentioned uh our preparedness for storms or year round that is our focus and and not just hurricanes but any disaster man-made or natural um and we are constantly coordinating so he named all people in the room and there are many more who we we work with we want to make sure that you understand that they are ready and prepared um very well prepared we're very fortunate and blessed to have the resources that we have here in St tamy parish and they will respond to help you um we have over 270 firefighters on duty right now ready to help clear roads and to respond to needs um before and after the storm uh we also the the Sheriff's Office alone added 50 additional Personnel just for storm response so that's in addition to their normal uh normal patrols that they have our cities have done the same we've also done that with public works so all and uh our our Ambulance Service a Cadian Ambulance Service is the ambulance service for St tamon Parish we do have some fire-based ambulance services as well but Acadian covers most of the parish they too have have staffed up all of those entities have liaison here in our EOC where that information even if phones go down it can be radioed in um and we have call takers that are taking calls in the eocc and making sure that information goes where it needs to go so we want you to know that we're well prepared but it's important to remember that as as president Cooper stated we need people to stay inside stay home stay safe let um let the storm pass because once we get above sustained tropical storm Forest winds those First Responders um should not be responding um and and every storm that comes through uh we we always have the few that end up going out and we've had a lot of near misses over the years and we don't want to cause additional harm or injury to those first resp responders uh and having them respond in in serious conditions and and there's a point 40 50 m hour where there's there's no way they're going to be able to respond and so we want everybody to understand that um if you're here there may be a time during during the the peak winds that you're not going to be able to have anybody respond to you and so we need people to stay inside and stay safe um president Cooper mentioned the generators and we can't reiterate that enough whether it's carbon monoxide or whether it's fires uh again every storm we we've had uh issues with that and people have lost their lives have been seriously injured as a result so please be careful um we're prepared for this storm St Tammy parish is a resilient Parish we have self-reliant and prepared people uh and we help each other and and I I expect that that's going to happen again and that we're going to come through this just fine so um you want to turn over to questions yeah do you have any questions at this time any shelters for folks made feel they can't withstand the wear where they are currently we have not opened any shelters we have taken calls and I'm actually glad you asked that so one of the things that that I do want to mention is that we have incredible faith-based and nonprofit organizations in St hmy parish and by the way if you want to do something to help if you're outside of St tan Parish even if you're inside um please consider donating to those like the Red Cross like the United Way like Northshore Community Foundation and there's many other others the North Lake Homeless Coalition helped us with someone who was in that situation and and not only uh assisted them with shelter but was able to give them a ride they were living in a tent and so we we are we do have some of th those things occurring but under the conditions that we're currently forecasted to receive most people should be fine in their houses we don't have any travel trailers like we do north of us and and west of us uh in those parishes left over from Ida so we we didn't have any of those kind of people people in our community um but we know that there probably are some that maybe are more vulnerable than others and we we are accounting for those and th those sort of people have reached out to us and we'll they'll be the first to be checked on uh post post on any areas of the parish that you're paying more attention to than maybe perhaps the extreme Eastern side yeah so you know and and I'm I'm sitting here in my mind trying to think because the the the the conditions have changed slightly but really overarchingly our biggest concern is what's going to happen with the storm surge uh and how much rainfall we get where where you know the winds are concerned right because it's tropical for uh storm force winds but that happens with thunderstorms here pretty regularly and so we're we're pretty resilient to that uh for the most part uh the bigger concern would be that storm surge Coastal but all of our drainage is gravity and so uh when when the rivers and creeks can't drain because the Lakes backed up uh any additional rainfall we get can cause increased flooding besides what happens at from that Inland push so uh that's really the biggest thing and and we're hoping that we end up on the good side of that that we don't get a lot of banding over St Tam Parish that the storm quickly moves past us the last update I saw it was moving at 16 mil an hour which we want it to keep keep moving that fast or or faster if possible get past us uh right now as of the last forecast for St tamon Parish we're expected to get our worst winds from 8:00 p.m. to about 2:00 a.m. um and so uh you know that's kind of parishwide um and then there's of course there there's that outside potential for tornadoes and so we don't get to pick where particularly where those will happen um and so really that would be it if we have any tornadoes occur or if there's any any uh significant flooding Beyond what's forecasted those are the two biggest concerns right now all right this is an public uh press conference from St hity Parish officials uh but we want to interrupt that real quick because there is some breaking news out the by water at this hour yeah there is a fire this is uh at pi and doine and this is at the old Leonard's building it is like a 1927 old department store so let's go live out to Alyssa Curtis uh apparently she is um been covering it out there um we got an email actually from pton Malone who right after he left the station he said I Smell Smoke I think there's something going on and so Alyssa has been covering New Orleans for us she's been all over kind of keeping an eye on the the the her hurricane impacts and we sent her over to this fire we don't know at this time though if if this is connected in any way to inclement weather a generator who knows we have no idea yet it could have been people squatting in the building for all we know I mean it apparently it's been um somewhat of a vacant building for a while now I think we see Alyssa there so Alyssa Curtis live in the Bywater this afternoon what can you tell us about the fire any idea what happened hopefully she can hear us out there I know I yeah Katie Devon we just got on scene I would say 5 to 10 minutes ago and the fire department told me that they're working to get us some more information but I spoke to a few people who live in the area and are watching the firefighters right now and they said that um the firefighters were on scene right after 1:00 it seems like the fire started right around 1:00 um but take a look right now at what's going on there is at least a dozen fire trucks on scene right now and a bunch of EMS trucks as as well um I'm trying to see Robin can they see the big hole in the ceiling yes um so you guys can see that massive massive hole that was not there um an hour ago from photos that I was sent from people on scene it looked like there was maybe a little chimney or some kind of opening up on the roof and pictures that I got showed that the Flames were coming out from there and Nod is walking my way right now so I'm going to see if they're available to do um some questions and answer in a minute um it looks like they may be talking to the paper really quickly so we'll check with in with them in about 2 minutes or so but guys this is a huge scene right now and I can tell you just from being out here for a few minutes I will likely smell like smoke for the rest of the day probably into tomorrow there is so much smoke and I'm not sure exactly what they're doing inside but every so often there seems to be an extra gust of smoke that comes out of the building so I'm not sure if they're still battling some hot spots in there or what exactly is going on but they are putting water on the roof um there are some guys on the ladders there's a lot of First Responders here on the scene um it seems like it had to have been a a pretty big fire for the response it's getting as well as that just massive hole as I'm sure you guys can see that um again A lot of people are kind of out here who live in the neighborhood just watching to make sure that everything is okay um and everything is going smoothly right now um again we're told that the fire department got on scene very quickly we're told that the Flames started right around 1:00 by 11:5 I'm told the fire department was on scene that's from people again who live in the area um who got some text messages from their neighbors hey there's a fire um we're not sure what's going on again nofd says we're working to get some information for me so we're going to try and check in with them in just a bit but I can't overstate how how much of a response is right is going on right here we are at the corner I'm not sure if I told you guys or you guys know this but we're on the corner of dolphine and Piet um so that's exactly where we are right now um this building I'm not exactly sure what what this building is or if it was an abandoned building or if it was in use as a as a business um so I'm going to ask some more questions about that and exactly what caused this fire but again it seems like it was a pretty a pretty big one um especially to Warrant this much of a response again um there's about a dozen fire trucks on scene right now I counted at least two to three EMS trucks um there might be more but all all along piy and along dolphine in both directions is blocked off and there are trucks parked um you shouldn't be outside anyways you should not be on the streets right now but if you are um in this area or trying to get home to this area you might have a little bit of a problem just because all the streets are blocked off off right now um coming into this intersection um all right ND seems to be done with the time spon we're live right now can you come on in and give us some answers all right thank you so much we are actually live right now so I appreciate it um if you can first say your name and give us your title with that the fire department uh Dante Lagan with fire Pio public information officer all right tell me um what do we know about this fire right now well what we do know right now is that that the first arriving companies were confronted with fire coming from the roof they were then soon pulled out due to the chief pulling them out because of a roof compromise and the fire conditions and weather conditions um they then went back in they are now conducting an attic attack so that um there is no extension to any other parts of the building and also to uh the buildings in their vicinity is the fire contained right now are there still some hot spots what's what's going on inside I see they're still kind of pouring water on the site they're still they're still actively working to get the fire under control are you do you guys know um the cause of the fire yet no that is still under investigation do we know if this building excuse me was abandoned was it empty were there people inside what is this building being used for as an active business I am not sure at the time at the moment but that is to be determined at a later time as well all right any other information that we should know right now no ma'am not at this St thank you so much I appreciate it we kind of put you on the spot but you did great thank you so much and thank you guys for your hard work again um the cause of the fire is still unknown right now it is still in active fire as we just heard from the fire department so many of our First Responders right now are inside trying to get it under control again that roof looks like it did collapse because of the fire um so I'm going to stay on scene and see what other information we can get and and gather over the next few minutes and I'll give you an update when I can that fire clearly still actively burning inside the attic we we are will be thinking about those firefighters because that can be extremely dangerous um you know being on the second um essentially Second Story they're in the Attic but it's like being in a second story and you know the fire can change so quickly so hopefully weather does not make it any easier right now that it is raining and there's wind and all those things no and frankly that's the last that firefighters need to be doing right now is having to deal with house fires and building fires you know as storms are making their way through you know firefighters are part of our front line of our medical defense so if something happens you know they really need to be prepared to go so hopefully it's not caused by anybody in that building um we'll have to wait and see though as they do their investigation so that's the ladies from Melissa Curtis you know she's been out and about doing just an amazing job getting all the information that we need to know from Orleans Parish officials um she you know was on top of it yesterday I think she talked to every single Department in the City of New Orleans yesterday doing a fantastic job uh but we're going to continue to monitor that fire situation and she's going to stay out there until we know exactly what happened sure and we'll bring that to you are we headed over to weather now I think we might be are we going to weather yes I think so we are all right Alexa take it away what do you got for us now we do have a big update actually we've been talking about the rain all morning we're a couple hours away from official landfall of Francine but the northern part of the eyewall is approaching the coast now so tabone Parish starting to see the northern part of the eyewall approach the coastline at this point so we're getting to the point where a couple hours from now this the eye will be moving on Shore but just that Northern side of the eyewall starting to approach the coast bringing the Gusty Winds of course and the heavy showers for tabone parish and parts of Vermillion Bay now a wider look at the area we're just experiencing the outer bands the heavy bands of showers that comes in heavy tropical downpours some small breaks in the showers but with these showers like we've been mentioned they can kind of twist and rotate so we'll watch for any isolated tornado potential if there was a quick spin up it would be quick it wouldn't last that long but something to keep in mind if you do happen to get a tornado warning in the next couple of hours just stay away from Windows and Doors just continue to kind of stay inside I hate to keep saying hunker down but kind of wait it out and just uh just ride this thing out because we got a couple uh several more hours of heavy rain and strong winds so the strongest of the Winds will start to uh pick up getting into the late later half of the afternoon and tonight as the eye approaches um landfall so landfall still expected throughout the late afternoon evening time frame but starting to see that Northern edge of it move into terone Parish so H will be seeing some very strong winds I wanted to show you the winds for our immediate area now so at this point sustained winds 15 25 plus miles per hour those gusts only at 20 25 milph now but expecting those hurricane forc winds for tabone parish and for the center of the storm throughout the course of today by the late afternoon and evening again those worst possible wind gusts may be up to 70 to 80 mph near the center center of the storm for tabone parish for our Bayou parishes and for the River Parishes this evening so worst case scenario gusts 70 80 mph so that can certainly knock out some power we could get an isolated gust up to 70 mph or so in the New Orleans Metro but generally expecting tropical storm force winds across the entire area just have those phones and those devices charged of course we'll continue to watch the rain move in this afternoon so the heaviest of the showers happening now that will continue for the next several hours into the the later evening hours tonight so we can get some flooded roadways make sure you're staying off the roads at this point you're inside you're avoiding any flooded roadways if you have an absolute emergency and you have to get outside you want to avoid those flooded roadways today but stay off the roads if you can even through early tomorrow we could still see that standing water because we've got the surge coming in plus the heavy rain so there can be some standing water on the roadways going into the next um the next day so it will take for the water to recede I want to show you the Windfield graphic like we' been mentioning the strongest of the storms of course right in that Center core so from Morgan City verm Millian Bay parts of our Bayou and River Parishes we'll be seeing the strongest of those winds uh coming in for the evening hours this is around 7 o'cl tonight you know give or take during the evening hours that's when the strongest of the Winds pushing in for our Bayou parishes River Parishes and then getting into tonight as the system moves Inland still packing some stronger winds near the core especially towards Baton Rouge late tonight but those stronger winds also uh expanding along I55 parts of tangoa Parish can be seeing those pretty strong winds um getting into tonight around 50 to 73 milph so certainly seeing those strong winds across the entire area of 39 to 58 milph tropical storm Force but closer to Hurricane force winds right near the center for our Western spots Baton Rouge especially but even places like llas and Hammond getting in on those higher gusts getting into tonight so we've got several hours to kind of wait this thing out uh it's not going to until overnight we'll see those improving conditions expected overnight hours we'll see the rain shift off to the north and that's when um really things will start quieting down for us so switching back over to the radar just so we can kind of track this thing and see you know what's currently happening we've got the heavy rain happening now the winds will continue to increase the rest of today the strongest of the Winds expected tonight really early evening dinner time and then overnight things will subside overnight may be a little bit windy especially for our Northern SP spots Northshore and Southwestern Mississippi staying windy overnight but really starting to see things drying up and clearing up overnight we'll stay a little breezy early tomorrow but tomorrow that's when we see those winds wrap around and come in from the West tomorrow Breezy West Winds 10 to 15 milph should help kind of push the water away off the coastline and help kind of that surge problem through tomorrow just slightly but like I was mentioning there can still be some standing water even after the rain is done tomorrow so another look at this I did want to mention like how I said some of these storms can have that twisting moot uh twisting motion so we are under a tornado watch for today because of that isolated tornado risk that's that's the really the lowest on on the list of things to worry about it's kind of the heavier showers coming in the strong damaging wind gust that will probably knock out some power going into this evening and knock out maybe down some trees and doing some minor damage uh through today hopefully we'll get lucky we won't have to deal with with a lot of damage with this storm but really The Good the good Silver Lining is is that it's not going to be with us for that long like we've been saying this once it moves on sh it will be moving pretty quickly by tonight we'll be seeing those those quieter calm conditions coming in overnight overnight so past midnight we get into the overnight hours things really start to settle down but yeah the northern part of that eye of that eyewall approaching uh tabone Parish so our Coastal spots tabone Parish starting to see the heaviest of those showers within the band uh within that uh iall band and some of that strongest uh tropical storm forest and hurricane Forest uh winds going in to uh tabone Parish now so I wanted to pull up another graphic again just to show you the cone like we always show you kind of what you can expect we have several more hours of of rough weather but but that's about it so the latest cone still indicating that the storm is going to maintain its strength there a category one at landfall this evening and around maybe dinner time 5:00 700 p.m. tonight it will be moving Inland and then as it moves Inland it still will pack those strong winds along the I55 Corridor towards Baton Rouge tonight so strong winds still anticip ipated as we move Inland and then by tomorrow very early it will already be in near Jackson Just In The Jackson vicinity by early tomorrow morning and then it's out of here into the Midwest by this weekend so we just have a few more hours of rough weather the roughest of the weather coming in during the late afternoon and evening today and into tonight but overnight things kind of quieting down and I know we wanted to talk um we have several reporter ISS out out on the ground you know getting in uh getting into like seeing what's exactly happening out on on the ground and so it's really vital that we're seeing what they're they're getting into how much of that water is piling up and how much of the surge is already starting to happen like we've been mentioning our low tide is actually coming in later this evening which may help a little bit I know it's kind of a small Silver Lining but the low tide that is expected going into this evening will will help the The Surge problem ever so slightly I want to look at these winds now current buoy readings of course the strongest of the Winds near the center of the storm the hurricane force winds right near the center of the storm but starting to expand and reach closer to Vermillion Bay and we'll start to see those strongest hurricane force winds go right along the coastline over the next couple of hours and then those strong hurricane Forest gusts are possible as the storm travels Inland this evening so just keep that in mind the roughest of the weather is still ahead so you thinking oh you know we're good everything's fine you know it's just a little bit of rain and wind things will start to kind of increase getting into the rest of today when it comes to um the the the damaging wind potential and um really that would be the biggest thing is the wind and the surge with this like we've been saying the surge still going to be with us throughout the course of today now I did want to th throw in another graphic here loading up kind of the wind threat um just so you can kind of get an idea of where you live and what is expected for you also I did get a a latest update from the National Weather Service there is actually a uh a wind reading coming in from CAD sustained winds and cadry right now this is from the National Weather Service sustained 75 or 74 mph gusts uh at a station uh just offshore in cadry so it is a little bit elevated um this this reading but 74 mph wind gusts uh oh no uh excuse me sustained 74 mph uh and cadri with a gust of 91 miles hour so let me let me redo this coca Dre right now gusting at 91 miles hour just offshore sustained winds at 74 mph so seeing those winds pick up for our coastal areas like I was mentioning cry seeing that gust at 91 mph this just in from the National Weather Service sustained winds hurricane Force for uh just offshore cadry of 74 miles hour so the winds picking up for our coastal areas this is what we have the strongest of the Winds starting to push on Shore but like this graphic shows our coastal areas tabone Parish coastal areas of tabone and lefou can see those gusts between the 80 to 90 plus mph range like they're seeing now 91 mph gusts just offshore of of cadry so that's what we have at this point and then we'll continue to see those strong damaging winds for our coastal areas and into parts of our River Parishes into the evening hours 70 to 90 M hour gusts possible for Western tabone H Morgan City could see that action later today also for our River Parishes 50 to 80 m per hour gusts possible getting into this evening and then further Eastward for the New Orleans metro area can't rule out some stronger gusts maybe up to 60 70 mph for the New Orleans Metro the further east you go expecting maybe 40 to 60 MPH gusts and then south Mississippi maybe 20 to 40 mph gust so we're talking some pretty pretty strong winds across the area that can do some damage when it comes to you know knocking out power especially with the saturated grounds knocking out some trees if a tree falls out down on a power line we know what's going to happen with that so this is what we have for the latest at this point we have another update coming in from the National Hurricane Center at 3:00 they're updating every um hour to get you the latest information since it is approaching the coastline just a few more hours and it will be on Shore so the northern eyewall again approaching tabone parish and we'll continue to watch as this eye pushes on Shore this evening and will bring us the strongest of the Winds but already seeing the reports of 90 mph gusts just offshore of cadry from a uh ship sh reading I believe it is just offshore of cadry so one of those monitoring stations just offshore uh for near those oil rigs so that's where we're getting that data from now 91 mph gusts just offshore of cadry sustained winds at 74 mph so seeing those very strong winds already roll into our Coastal spots early this afternoon and that will continue to be the trend into the rest of today so we'll be here monitoring all of this with you every minute of today we'll be here until it moves on Shore and moves Inland we'll be with you until this storm passes off and out of our area and we are expecting to see those improving conditions getting into the overnight hours with a dry day tomorrow and some nice weather coming in tomorrow and this weekend to hopefully clean up anything that happens hopefully minimal damage we're hoping for minimal damage with this system coming in but at least tomorrow and this weekend we'll have some dry nice days to kind of get through and pick up what whatever seems whatever happens through today Alexa that'll help Alexa can you hear me yet yeah okay Alexa wait yeah oh you're making everybody question I know lighting up at home you're right um I have question for you though Alexa um you the outer um upper eyewall is looks like it's about to come on Shore like any minute so I wonder the models seem to be indicating that the Hurricane's not officially going to make landfall still until 7:00 tonight but that's like hours from now is it is it I think it might be a little bit sooner than 7 o'clock tonight I'm going to say a because it's when the center of the eye crosses Inland that's officially landfall I would say probably within the next two hours 2ish hours or so so we'll probably see the landfall of this system okay yeah I was wondering if those models just needed to update their timing based on how quickly this thing seems to be moving yeah I'm sure at the 3:00 update from the NHC they'll probably indicate that the storm will be moving in a little bit sooner yeah it is moving a little bit more quickly now and and like you see these outer bands coming in right for lower tabone the eyewall I mean it's it's coming in so the eye the center couple more hours it'll be in uh on Shore so I think yeah maybe two 2ish hours it'll be it'll be Inland and with that 90 mph wind gust clocked at cadry I mean you would think that that you know is definitely that eyewall yeah yes yes cuz the eyewall is where the strongest of the winds are and the and the heaviest of the rain is kind of packed right around the eye so we know what that does when it's coming on Shore and and it's it's verifying it's verifying as a category one hurricane sustained winds at 74 miles hour that is a cat one so we got it yeah okay well there it is Francine making you know the very first uh first approach it's kissing the coastline so to speak so kissing the coast thank you so much Alexa and you know we do have Crews all throughout that area we of course had Amelia in cadry earlier today um she has since moved to safer and Higher Ground uh just to make sure that she's safe as the storm comes ashore uh but we do have Crews also you know Meg Ferris was over in gallano earlier uh which is in lefou Parish and um so we do want to get a check um of what's Happening down there yeah Lily Cummings was in the mobile forecast Center so she's been driving around the H area all day today to keep an eye on things and and she is in h right now we're going to check in with her and see what she's seeing Lily Devon Katie that's right we've been in the mobile forecast Center since about 1011 this morning driving throughout tabone Parish at one point we made it all the way down to Berg down the bayou but we decided to come back up closer to H um you all have been spoton I will say that giving us communication from back at the station letting us know what exactly the models are looking like and things like this I know that um Alexa was just talking about that the eyewall is making its way to terone Parish right as you all sent us that email it was kind of still the air wasn't really moving a lot and then the wind picked up Rain picked up and everything started to happen so you can kind of see behind me here what exactly the weather is doing so a lot of rain we've seen kind of showers off and on here in tabone Parish throughout the day but now that is definitely picking up so it seems as if most people are heating the warning the streets have been very clear as we mentioned we've been driving throughout the parish all morning and we haven't seen a lot of traffic on the roads but I will say there are a lot of Law Enforcement Officers we've seen a lot of hom police we've seen a lot of terone Parish deputies out here we actually just saw a hom police officer pull someone over because right now tabone parish is under a curfew at this hour that started at 8:00 a.m. actually this morning so folks are being asked to be inside and really as you all were saying with those wind gusts that they're clocking down the coast near kadry I mean now is the time to be inside if you are not so cadry we were there last night if you remember as the flo floodgates closed there off of Highway 56 so we were there as that happened and that happened around 700 p.m. last night as you all know the areas that are outside of the levy protection system here in Tbone Parish those are under a mandatory evacuation we did check with some of the deputies that were down there at that hour they said yep we got everything body out of that area there are parts of Zone 2 of tabone Parish near dlarge that are under a um suggested evacuation at this hour so they were making sure that folks were heating those warnings as well so there's been a lot of moving parts and a lot of preparation down here in tabone Parish they are ready for this storm we spoke with the parish president earlier this morning he was telling us you know we are watching things at the emergency Operation Center that's located in Gray they're all there making sure that things are looking good they have all of their First Responders on standby uh while we were there we actually saw representatives from um different EMS facilities W you can really see that wind is picking up right now so as Alexa was saying those winds are shifting up uh again we are in h so we decided not to be close down the bayou we wanted to be in h and find a safe spot to be so we're actually under um a large safe awning right now keeping us dry and and keeping us away from this wind but you can see it out in the parking lot it just pushing that rain there across the parking lot so a lot of things happening here as far as weather goes what they're going to be watching closely of course here in terone Parish is storm surge the parish president had told us yesterday and today that they can expect anywhere between 5 to 10 ft of storm surge obviously in those low-lying areas that's a big concern as we were driving throughout the parish today we saw a lot of water in the canal also just in the drainage ditches along the streets so there will be a chance a pretty good chance that as that storm surge moves in as winds and rains pick up here within the next two hours as Alexa said she thinks that uh the hurricane may make landfall within the next two hours I you can expect that that's going to push onto our roadways here in tabone Parish and possibly um cause some flooding here so not the time to be out and about honestly we woke up this morning we said let's go out and see if anything's open to get a hot breakfast well joke was on us nothing is open in tabone Parish we did not get a hot breakfast we stuck with our little our our our meat and cheese sandwiches that I made y'all we that's what we're eating down here in the car so we'll be fine don't worry about us but just that to say nothing is really open guys so no one needs to be out and about we've seen a lot of businesses that are boarded up at this point um so a lot of folks heating the warnings business is closed really there's nothing to do outside so stay safe in your homes at this point and just be home and watch us on the news we're keeping you updated we're out here monitoring things and keeping y'all safe and staying safe um as well as we're out here so that's what we're seeing right now in tabone Parish and um Devin Katie you got any questions for me out here I mean what kind of meat yeah just kidding I did see a picture of the sandwich it looked pretty good okay I made those myself thank you very much turkey and cheese and of course lemon cheese for Rick N outstanding the best got to take care of your photographer down there yes and yourself of course I'm glad you're staying safe yeah please be sure to stay safe down there this is a pretty sturdy absolutely no no no we know that and we were driving around looking for a sturdy structure to be under and and this we're actually here at the Civic Center in h so this is closed at the time you know they've got everything rolled down it's not open but this is a really sturdy um place where we're at right now okay that's great stuff and thank you for updating us on all that important information I mean it sounds like uh you've got officials on on top of it and uh you know they're just kind of waiting and watching and you know just like everybody else is hopefully from you know the security and comfort of their living room yeah Katie and I did actually speak I want to mention I spoke with tabbone Paris Sheriff's Office earlier today I just wanted to touch base with them I asked him hey are y'all getting any reports of any flooding any down trees they said no down trees at this point um obviously water levels south of those Levy systems though they said are heightened at this point so they are monitoring those pretty closely that outer upper eyewall is going to be making its way to you very shortly looking at the radar lots of red in there so uh as the winds pick up and the rain starts getting crazy you know please find a safe place to to ride it out but we'll check back in with you and just a little while thanks so much Lily thank you all right we're back and Whitney Miller has been focusing on answering your questions at home you've been texting them to us dropping them to us on social media we've been getting emails all kinds of things which is super helpful because as many reporters as we have out there we cannot be anywhere everywhere at one time okay so um okay um although we're going to pause real through what to expect if we have fin every New Orleans here our director of operations for the metro area and I have nikah Scott here who is also here and she is our VP of customer service so you have a couple of other people to ask questions of when we when I finished this little part um first and foremost we prepared well in advance we drill all the time but we also did some other things in advance of the storm what we did we we did a lot of vegetation management to make sure as the winds come through you don't see flying debris you don't have limbs falling on wires we know we can't can't protect everything but we did the most critical lines that we could and went through that we hired extra vegetation management Crews to come in just to do that we also um so we've added a th000 vegetation Crews and then we also Patrol 48 line miles and performed vegetation management work at 109 sites these are the hot spots that they were looking for again to at least preempt any of the damage that might come be caused by the wind and if we could do that then we can hopefully prevent some outages um we've also have about um we have just so everyone knows because I want to make sure as you look out there if you're out and about what you shouldn't be you're going to start seeing a lot of Crews coming into the city and they'll be housed here a lot of them will work in New Orleans metro area and they'll also be staying here at our hotels to work the rest of the state so we have additional Crews from all over the the State and from our sister companies in Texas and Mississippi and Arkansas everyone's coming here to help us restore as quickly as we can and the last note that I got or the last numbers I got which I know is already increased we have uh 1350 um hotel rooms at over four hotels just to to support and house Crews those are that is an example of how we're bringing in and being prepared um on what will do if you should have a an outage we're GNA ask everyone to remember that if you go outside and you see some a line down do not touch it if you're using a generator be careful and you be careful of how you use it but if we are able to we will get out there as quickly as we can like everyone else we have to keep our crew safe make sure y'all are safe and if the the winds are above shelter 30 mil 30 mph we're not allowed to send Crews up in bucket trucks so they will get have to do damage assessment first and then go back out make sure they understand that what what has happened and then they'll start restoration as quickly as possible um I'm going to ask uh Shelton to give just a little bit more information on what happens in those steps as soon as as soon as you do the damage assessment then what yeah so once we have bit so once we we we start our phase of damage assessing and then as we get contract crws we kind of work in tandom to where we'll have some some Crews working overnight to where they're identifying the things that might have may have U happened overnight to where we have that that work kind of ready for the crews as they come in with that said we then work with uh just kind of running out there kind of uh catching all our lines in terms of what's out there and then getting our crews as they come come in to work getting them out there on the the highest uh customer count feeders to make sure we account for those and any critical infastructure for example sewage and water board a treatment facility if that that feeder was to go out we want to make sure we get that up and running so that's kind of the game plan we start with the feeders with the highest customer count as well as well as the critical infrastructure that's out there can you talk about how the system has been hardened since hurricane Ida especially with service to the sewage and waterboard and the the uh sewage pump stations that were kind of abandoned without power for a long time last night so one thing I'll say is leading up to the storm we've um definitely did our inspections on our all our feeders that feed into the treatment facility and all our sewage and waterboard critical infrastructure our critical pumping stations that we have out there to make sure they're in good standing if there's anything imminent that we need to to address we make sure that we do that are there certain problems areas where you guys notice where they always get out just that you guys are actually watching closely we're just very mindful in terms of the Fe the the critical feeders we have out there that if they do go out we make sure we get them back as as quickly as possible obviously doing it once it's safe to do so and keeping the guys safety um Paramount so and this this room in particular I mentioned earlier this room in particular is where they will be notified when they're out outages they can see and they have they have a a Viewpoint a vantage point here to watch everything as outages come occur they know where they're they are and then they will be notifying Crews as they come in to go and do the restoration and Deana could you talk a little bit about the situation with knops uh because obviously that was a issue after Ida where the city council was concerned about the Black Star capabilities we're probably not going to face that kind of situation with this storm but in case we do have there been improvements there to be able to get the power out if it needs to start up knops was a whole it was a whole different situation and a whole different type of storm but knops is now running so we have it running right now it is intended to stay on throughout the storm can you talk about why people should not go out when you guys are assessing immediately after the storm because I understand that that's some of the times where it could be the most dangerous for people being outside so we we actually consider ourselves as First Responders too so you'll notice that everybody that's out there is going to go back out and make sure what damage has been caused what is blown in the in the streets and so our our big question is do you have to go out if you don't have to go out please don't go out because you don't want to get caught with or cause additional damage certainly you don't want to hurt yourself and harm yourself Dan I know it's a little preemptive but assuming that there is an outage do you think Crews will be able to get out and to respond to that kind of outage quicker because the storm is a little bit you know faster moving than other it it will depend on the time of day so if if as we're expecting the storm to come through overnight essentially probably be done by midnight is what we're hearing it's dark we're not going to send people out unless it's a critical urgent customer or something that has happened otherwise we have to wait till till it's light again to send our damage assessors out uh we also brought in I think 400 additional damage people to Crews to do damage assessment again that the fastest way we can get lights back on is to make sure we understand what damage occurred and that's what we'll do and just to be mindful in terms of the wind that's out there you know we we do look to anticipate that the winds will stay high till roughly around 2: in the morning so that's we we we will not put our guys in in danger in terms of being out there in the field so i' I'd like to also introduce nikah Scott and and it she's important she'll come up here in just a second and bear with us for being a little bit crowded but I want to make sure that um that customers know this is uh our customer service VP she is working with customers and the council throughout the entire city so all our customer Communications our text messaging our um are going through Nika they have done over Bey above and beyond even what was done during Ida we learned some lessons from there they're working with the hotels they're working with the most vulnerable customers so Micah you want to share a little bit of what's different yeah so um our customer service managers for this storm are actually embedded into our networks we have three of those are on the city uh one in New Orleans East uh one in algers uh and one here at tane so we have customer service managers who are assigned to every Council District embedded here so that when we have an outage we know immediately that we've had an outage because these guys Shel steam communicates it to us as soon as we know we let the council know uh we're also doing a little bit uh something a little bit different this year too uh on our social media feeds you'll see that energy New Orleans is tagging the council utility account so that they'll be able to repost repost any updates uh that we have is there anything different this time in terms of being able to monitor is the system improved so that you get quicker updates on outages or quicker information out I'm probably not the right one to talk about the system that's probably Shelton but I know from a customer service perspective as soon as something goes out we know but probably before a customer even calls to complain or let us know there is an outage as soon as Shelton know he knows he notifies our teams thanks all right that was ENT New Orleans uh that was investigative reporter David Hammer he is there um asking some of the tough questions that you heard him asking um of Entergy New Orleans CEO Diana Rodriguez um they are you know watching and waiting she did mention however let me just back up the storm appears to be moving at a faster Pace than we initially thought it was going to as of late yesterday uh the eyewall as Alexa mentioned probably is going to be making its way well the outer eyewall is already making its way which is good because Deana Rodriguez basically just said um if it is dark they can't get out there to assess the damage in order to start repairing it so if power goes out if we are seeing those massive outages out there they really can't even hit the ground running until daylight tomorrow so the sooner the storm makes its way through and causes the damage that it's going to cause the better for our power system and for people's comfort in their homes sure and so the sooner the better this is this is decent news that we're we're hopefully seeing landfall a little bit earlier than we were originally uh told that's when we were going to see it um so yeah get in get out let enery do their thing we want her out get out go home Francine yeah we're done yes we're done here although we're not done no we're definitely not done but um enty you know of course saying that they have extra Manpower that they've brought in extra damage assessment surveyors uh that will be hitting the ground running as soon as the storm is um clear and they are you know can do that safely an extra cleanup Cruise too so they can come in get rid of all the branches trees whatever's in their way of doing their jobs yes she also mentioned that they have been apparently upping their vegetation trimming efforts which means cutting the trees from around the power line so that hopefully power isn't taken out by so many of them we do know the ground is saturated we've been talking about that for 2 days now uh all those storms that we had in the last couple of weeks uh have really made it difficult for trees power poles things like that to maintain their strength and I think that is something that you know a lot a lot of our officials are going to be watching and and people you know just general residents are going to be watching as they have trees and stuff around their homes and in their neighborhoods y we're going to get over to to Whitney Miller who has been answering your questions that you've been sending into to us um Whitney you're sitting down with uh you've got you've got the man of the hour over there I do but before we get to that man we G to get to you but first I wanted I have some questions that were asked uh one of those questions was uh somebody wanted us to repeat the Jefferson Parish alert number some tech words the text number that they can uh reach out to if they lose power they have issues and that is the JP Alert in number is 888777 and if you speak Spanish it is JP notias 2 888777 same thing so I want chief meteorologist Chris Frank all right you got some question I got questions for you okay good and we like these these help us to steer what we should be talking more about we feel like we're getting all the information out there but obviously there are things that folks still want to know the big this is a question I was actually on the phone with someone today talking about this but the question came up in our our text uh alert messages uh why is it that hurricanes seem to make landfall close to night time or overnight I think and and a few people have asked me that with regards to it looked like this was going to be making landfall maybe more in the evening I think that's just more people remember those because there is kind of that added danger of we can't see what is happening it does become a little bit more frightening but there really isn't anything that says they hit us or anywhere at night compared to the daylight hours I think the nighttime storms are just a little bit more memorable because you had to go to sleep and you didn't know what was going to happen right well some people you didn't go to or you want to go to sleep but you can't or there's that unknown danger of what is happening I can't see power goes out then you're kind of left completely in the dark and so it's I think it's a little bit more of a memorable situation when they do make landfall at night now this is an anic not someone also said wait this is the one you wouldn't asking yeah this is I didn't give you a head up surpris me yeah someone said why is it that the ones that really come to Louisiana they must love Louisiana are the female named storms and I I don't know I don't know that's a that's a good question it's a good question know the ones that really make impact the ones that have a are the women yeah they they that's what they said they they are they tend to be good answer Chris Franklin all right when back to a serious question okay when do you think it's safe to get back on the road after the storm passes weatherwise and this person was from upper Jefferson Parish I'd wait until tomorrow morning again you know conditions are worsening right now we've already started to see the winds picking up the rain getting heavier at times we're starting to see the eyewall approaching now lower terab bone so it only is going to worsen throughout the day so at this time almost 3:00 in the afternoon is when you want to be indoors and wait till this passes by about 300 a.m. I think at the latest we should see the center of it as a tropical storm well to our North we're going to be on the back side kind of the southern side with dry air so we'll already start to see improving conditions but we even heard some officials saying yesterday don't go out too early I mean you can kind of assess your neighborhood and whatnot but don't try and go roaming around because we just don't know what conditions are going to be like until we get into early tomorrow morning so power lines that are down roads can be closed and you don't know until you're on top of it we could still have some flooded roadway so just kind of wait through tomorrow morning and once we start getting more of the all clear across parts of the region then we'll be able to start heading out and I know folks want to get out and start assessing damage and other again a confirmed tornado on the ground in downtown Conor is a very dangerous and life-threatening weather event get into the interior section of your house away from Windows or a basement if you have and there's the debris right there in the Milstead area near the Rockdale Medical Center right channel one Atlanta there is a storm coming an event like the world has never seen before the emerging event will have little to do with weather more about developing situations that were foreseen many years ago we have always warned you during severe weather and news events that affected many now channel 1 Atlanta begin a new series to warn you about what's coming soon and make sure you are prepared join us on a New Journey as according to a recent survey a lot of people believe we are living in the last days current news events show us now more than ever in history time is setting the stage for the coming storm a new series now playing only on Channel 1 Atlanta [Music] oh n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] this afternoon I think some of those uh really outer bands of the storm started making their way through the metro area and so we've been feeling the impacts of Francine all day long and it's only going to continue to get unfortunately worse From Here Yeah you mentioned cadry and that's where the eyewall just was approaching not that long ago we've got Lily Cummings down in the H area and in that area there was a sustained sustained winds at about 75 mph so definitely very windy I think we clocked one at 90 in cadry which is an indicator that it definitely is the outer eyewall making its way in uh that was about an hour ago right I believe yeah about 30 minutes 30 minutes ago um well we regardless we we really want to just see where it is now yeah of course so let's go over to Alexa meteor meteorolog Alexa tler yeah that outer eyewall continuing to move on shore of lower terone Parish so the eyewall is moving on Shore now the eyewall bringing those heavier downpours the stronger storms and the hurricane force wind gust for lower tabone Parish into Morgan City actually Morgan City in this region seeing a flash flood warning so for the Morgan City area already dealing with some flash flooding as the outer eyewall starts to move on Shore so it looks like the eye of the storm will be moving Inland within the next couple of hours so the worst of the weather is really it's happening now the heaviest of the rain is pushing into the region throughout the course of the afternoon we'll continue to see these outer bands dump some good heavy rain and it comes in waves sometimes you get a break from the heavier downpours and then it picks right back up also the wind starting to really increase but that is a look there coming into lower tabone Parish the northern part of the eyewall moving into our Coastal spots so we'll continue to track this as it moves Inland we've got the outer bands pushing in producing the heavy downpours we will be dealing with some Street flooding most likely across the area in a few spots localized Street flooding certainly possible so of course you want to stay off the roads the rest of today as the winds pick up as we see more rain this afternoon Street flooding definitely something you can bet on those heavier showers expanding to the NorthShore and into south Mississippi slide L seeing some heavy rain uh for our Mississippi Coast seeing those heavier downpours pushing in with these outer bands and like we mentioned there is that low chance for quick spin up rotating storm so a quick spin up tornado possible it is a low risk for that but you can't rule it out as the outer bands move on Shore we know how that goes you can get a quick brief tornado that um is really um very low low risk for that but we saw some tornado warnings earlier for lower plans that was a few hours ago we have not seen any other tornado warnings pop up but we'll just be vigilant and watching to see if any of these storms can rotate but so far just producing some heavy downpours winds really starting to pick up we'll look at those winds at this point so these are our wind gusts gusts at 61 milph just off the uh the mouth of the Mississippi River so for Southwest past here 61 mph gust just offshore of lower lefo just offshore of Port fushan 48 mph gust we've got this uh reading just offshore here 61 mph gust so right for our Coastal spots that's where the winds are really increasing 40 to 60 MPH gust Just Happening offshore of our uh Coastline now Eugene Island 66 mph gust Morgan City 49 mil hour dck 49 mph immediate area seeing those gusts up to 35 mph for Bel Chase Grand Isle as we get into the lakefront 40 mph gusts right now so those winds are picking up we're seeing those gusts 25 to 35 40ish miles per hour for Southeastern Louisiana the strongest of the Winds though are still offshore so we're expecting the winds to continue to increase going into the next couple of hours especially for lower tabone Bayou parishes River Parishes will'll see the strongest of the Winds getting into the late afternoon and into the evening hours as Francine moves Inland so we still have more hours of bad weather to get to and as the winds pick up this is when you know you may get some power outages across the region so hopefully your power stays intact but you might end up losing power tonight as the winds start to pick up this evening so again a closer look at those wind speeds really starting to increase sustained winds for Southeast Louisiana up to 20 25 miles hour in a few spots generally 10 to 15 on the NorthShore but even even starting to see gust pick up for the NorthShore slide L gusting at 23 and then 39 at the lakefront so today that's really the big thing the winds and The Surge potential that's what we'll be watching the rest of today through the afternoon into tonight as we get Francine moving Inland in the next couple of hours that's when we can see those hurricane Force gusts for our lower tabone for Bayou parishes River Parishes even for the I55 Corridor late tonight you may get a rogue gust at Hurricane force and even for the metro area maybe you get an isolated gust up to 70 or so Miles hour so expecting the the very strong wind the rest of the afternoon to increase into tonight make sure you have those devices charg charged like we've been saying have everything charged up your phone your iPad everything like that in case the power does go out we'll be watching The Heavy Rain through the rest of the afternoon and into the evening some of us picking up around four to six inches of rain again it just depends so there can be some localized Street flooding today and plus we're watching The Surge and the coastal flooding so we could have some standing water lasting into tonight into early tomorrow so you want to avoid those flooded roadways don't go out and assess damage until you really get the okay from from the officials from uh people that are you know out assessing and seeing what's going on uh Outdoors like uh the local government officials will give you the the okay when everything looks like you know you can be out and about and checking things out on the road so I wanted to show you the wind field again because this is kind of an important graphic to show those tropical storm force winds in effect for basically the entire area as we go into the rest of tonight we'll see those tropical storm Forest winds Force the Southshore even into the NorthShore and South Mississippi probably won't see as high of a wind uh wind potential but still expecting for parts of coastal Mississippi getting those tropical storm force winds late tonight but the core of the storm packs those hurricane force winds 74 plus m per hour winds will be happening across Morgan City possibly into Baton Rouge along the center line of the center or core of the storm and even late tonight as the center continues to push Inland parts of tanip pooa Parish may be seeing those very strong winds uh up to 59 to 73 mph sustained at at times so it's expecting very um elevated winds the rest of today into tonight it's not till the overnight hours we'll see things calming down as Francine moves Inland and into south Mississippi wind speeds will be decreasing in the overnight hours tomorrow morning things really quieting down it may still just be a bit Breezy for our Northshore spots early tomorrow as this continues to push up to the north but like we've been saying it's not going to be in our area for that long so that's really the Silver Lining is that this thing is going to be in and out of here and also look at this dry air kind of wrapping around Francine and as the dry air starts to wrap around you may notice here on our water vapor imagery and also I was looking at our satellite data the southern side of the storm the the clouds are starting to kind of weaken a little bit and the showers are starting to weaken a little bit so as this moves on Shore it looks like rainfall intensity will probably come down later tonight so it's it's not like we're going to be dealing with heavy rain all through throughout the night we've got the heavy showers now the band's moving in now and the showers will continue into the early evening but I think as we get to the mid middle of tonight or middle evening hours mid evening just after dinner time some of those showers will start to kind of weaken and the intensity will go down because we have that drier air working in on the southern side of the system also that helps to keep the intensity of the system down we've got the dry air and the shear all working in our favor so that is something good to kind of note and and highlight yes we have some heavy showers now but as we get into later this evening so after dinner time I think the rain really starts to wind down so more heavy rain at times through the next several hours and then we get later into tonight those showers shift up to the north with that drier air working in behind it and then early tomorrow we're done with the rain so as we get into the overnight rain passes off to the north it's in Jackson Mississippi by early tomorrow morning GFS kind of has a similar solution here going into the next few hours we'll get the outer bands continuing to push in but as the dry air Works in around this system I think we'll see less and less rain as we get into the middle evening later evening hours tonight the rain really starts to subside and overnight things quieting down so that's a good thing tomorrow we'll just be you know picking up the pieces I I can't think of a better expression to come up with this but hopefully we'll have minimal damage we'll just be kind of getting everything together tomorrow and we can put this behind us hopefully we'll have minimal impacts from Francine the rest of today so sustained winds again across Southeast Louisiana picking up as we head into the afternoon sustained tropical storm Forest winds possible the rest of today especially into the evening and then hurricane Force gusts possible for the metro area and particularly for our uh Bayou and River Parishes even into the NorthShore like Hammond mome can be seeing those strong wind gusts up to Hurricane Force gusts later tonight as Francine moves Inland overnight that's when our wind dire wind direction changes rather comes in from the West and Northwest and those winds come down around 10 to 15 mph early tomorrow and again those winds mostly from the West Northwest tomorrow can help push that water away and maybe help kind of alleviate some of the surge issues for our Coastal spots tomorrow so something to look forward to tomorrow as we uh look ahead to a more tranquil Thursday Friday and into the weekend no worries when it comes to the weather so we talk about the wind being the biggest thing to look out for also the surge potential those numbers have not changed much anywhere from uh port fuchan west where it's still expecting up 5 to 10 fet of surge as the storm comes Inland 4 to 7 ft of surge for uh Grand is and points Eastward to Venice so for uh bararia bay 4 to 7 ft of surge Lake Bourne Lake Pon train Eastward facing shorelines of St Bernard and Eastern plaman 4 to six feet possible and that continues into south Mississippi as well and then for Lake marpa maybe 3 to 5 feet of surge so like I've been mentioning before even if the rain stops later tonight we could still have some standing water from the rain the fresh waterer flooding is possible we'll continue to see those big puddles and ponding on the roadways through early tomorrow plus we could have some water still kind of elevated from The Surge into early tomorrow so that's why you want to take it easy on the roads you don't want to go out and about early tomorrow until you get the okay from you know government officials that everything looks good and everything looks you know safe to Traverse because we could still be dealing with some standing water through early tomorrow it'll take time for the water to kind of come down and recede and like we mentioned the NorthShore Rivers will probably be running pretty high tomorrow into Friday it'll take the weekend for those numbers to come down so Northshore river is expected to maybe go into a minor flood stage tomorrow into uh early Friday so a closer look at those winds for the storm those strongest winds again packed into that eye and the eye wall again moving on shore of lower tabone Parish now and the eye is probably going to be moving into near tabone Parish that's vicinity within the next couple of hours within the next hour and a half two hours we'll probably see the center of the eye move on Shore so maybe a little bit sooner uh at least the eye itself can be moving on Shore within the next 2 hours or or less and then you know it'll take some time for the entire eye to complete the Inland approach so we've got a few more hours of rough weather certainly the strongest of the winds are still going to be ahead of us the rest of the afternoon into tonight and it's not until overnight we'll start to see those wind speeds really subside but the core of the storm can bring those hurricane Force gusts for the Bayou parishes River Parishes and even parts of the NorthShore Hammond tangoa Parish seeing those strong wind gusts into tonight so can't rule out maybe some down trees some power outages like we've been mentioning something it's certainly an expectation that that you should have hopefully we'll get lucky we'll luck out and it won't be so bad wind gust maximum wind gust forecast like we are already seeing like that oil platform just offshore of cadry reporting a wind gust of 90 mph the the the port is a little bit higher off the ground so it is a little bit elevated the reading is coming not from the surface a few like about 100 ft off the ground so but still wind gusts near 90 mph just offshore of cadry that's what we have 80 to 90 mph plus gusts expected for lower uh tabone and for parts of Marsh Island so Marsh Island down to Morgan City uh Points West we'll be seeing 80 to 90 m per hour gusts and then as we get into this evening we could see 70 to 90 M hour gust possible on the the worst case scenario for H so we'll call it 70 to 80 plus I think 90 would be on the really high into the scale for H and then for our River Parishes anywhere from 50 to 70 plus uh mph G for our River Parishes and that extends into parts of the NorthShore later tonight as Francine moves Inland the farther east you go I think our wind gust will be a little bit lower maybe 40 60 to mile 40 to 50 plus 60 being the worst case for Slidel uh parts of the new Orland Metro may get an isolated gust up to 70 plus miles per hour so you can't rule that out farther east to go into south Mississippi talking maybe 20 40 m per hour gusts right along the coastline so the farther east you are away from the center of the storm the wind gusts won't be as high but still expecting these tropical storm Forest winds throughout the rest of today into tonight rainfall totals like we've been mentioning can really vary quite a bit anywhere from 3 to four inches of rain possible Area Wide it's just hard to say exactly where the the heaviest showers set up because you know in the bands come in it's hard to predict exactly all right where we'll see the most rain but you know you can't rule out street flooding throughout the course of today that's why you have to definitely stay off the roads if you can hurricane Francine as of the latest update from the National Hurricane Center still has sustained winds at 90 mph gusts at the center 115 mph so it is it is impressive category 1 storm it is now moving to the Northeast at 17 mph it is 115 miles Southwest of the City of New Orleans so it is getting closer and this red box here indicates we are under a tornado watch for the rest of today because again low risk for that but any of these bands that come in may have the ability to rotate so we'll watch that in addition to everything else we're watching the rest of today the heavy rain and really the the strong winds being the biggest thing and The Surge of course pushing all that water inland Unfortunately today and probably through early tomorrow it'll take some time for the water to go down throughout the course of tomorrow so landfall expected very shortly by this evening the center of the storm should be Inland and then we'll see those impacts the rest of tonight but again we be out here soon early tomorrow morning it'll already be near Jackson Mississippi and is continuing on its path northward bringing parts of the Mississippi Valley some some much needed rain across parts of the Midwest this weekend again so it'll be in and out here before we even know it this will hopefully be a distant memory for us in the coming years this storm 7-day forecast also we've got good things to look forward to this weekend tomorrow yes it will be a little Breezy especially on the North Shore early in the day but we'll be on a drying Trend we'll stay dry this weekend actually a little less humid too with some drier air working in behind Francine like we've been showing you it's not going to feel as muggy outside so if we have to you know do the cleanup efforts we have to you know go outside cut down some trees and do what we need to do it won't feel as oppress outside that's another good thing to kind of focus on temperatures also not bad mid to Upper 80s through this weekend into early next week and even through early next week looking at a quiet stretch of weather to enjoy after this rough Wednesday with her we will enjoy it can't wait we just have to get through today and Alexa as you just mentioned that outer upper eyewall is kissing the coast and uh it the worst of it is essentially making its way uh through Louisiana and will be on I would think it would be making landfall pretty pretty soon here at least that's what our meteorologists are telling us yeah and I do know that it's very windy in home it was windy the last time that we checked in with Lily Cummings who's been down there and she recently texted me that her hat blew off and she had to go catch it so hang on to your hat Lily yeah um sounds like it's getting a little windy down there Devin you just outed me on the news here that my hat blew off I told Rick N I said as long as my hat doesn't blow off on live TV I'm good but it did so um the wind is definitely picking up out here it got very Gusty just a second ago um you can definitely tell just take a look at some of the uh trees and the rain that's coming down at this point so just in the last like you said 30 minutes that we touched base with y'all we've seen a lot of things pick up here not seeing very many people on the roadways at this point we're seeing Homa police still and tabone Paris sheriff's deputies out on the roadways they are out actually at one point we heard one of them over a loudspeaker telling folks that you should be in side so obviously enforcing that curfew that is in effect parishwide but take a look at some of the um rain and wind here that photojournalist Rick N Riggins is showing y'all it is definitely getting stronger as it makes its way up the Louisiana coast so we are in h right now at the Civic Center and you know again guys we've been talking with the parish President yesterday and today obviously there's a lot of anxiety in this area given they just experienced hurricane Ida 3 years ago this is not an Ida they're watching the storm surge closely and I I know you're seeing these winds right now that rickes is showing you and it's kind of making you a little nervous maybe but this is not um as strong as the ons were in Ida obviously um so the parish president did talk to us a little bit about that the folks there's 27 families still living in RVs post Ida those folks were asked to come and take shelter elsewhere so they have he told me around 400 families are still displaced from Ida at this time so folks obviously taking advantage of the shelter that they have open right now that is at um that is there in h at the um Community Center that we were at last night showing you all that opened at 6:00 p.m. last night they obviously have closed the floodgates here in tabone Parish at this point preparing for that storm surge they did that at 700 p.m. last night asking folks to evacuate those areas that are not within the levy protection Zone and then also some folks that live near the do large area South tabone area just giving them a notice that you're under a temp a a a suggested evacuation at this point now I do want to say the folks here in Tbone Parish they know what to do we've noticed throughout the morning no businesses really are open at this point you've seen a lot of folks that have boarded up both their houses and their businesses and a lot of people are heating this warning we saw tons of people out at the sandbag sites yesterday getting those sandbag bags in order so that they could fortify their homes so people are listening to the local guidance both here on the news but also their Parish officials that are telling them exactly what to do and it seems like folks are following all that which is really great to see like I said not a lot of people out at this point um earlier today when the rain kind of let up for a second we did see some folks that were out you know walking the dog and things like that probably just in that minor little break that we got from the rain that was smart to get out there while you could but now is the time to be inside now I do want to mention um obviously as we were just talking about hurricane Ida there are still lots of places here in Tbone Parish where you can see where Ida struck right you can see the blue tarps on the roofs you can see um some of the buildings that haven't been repaired at this point but the folks down here are truly incredible I actually after our last live shot that we just had telling y'all about my little cold cut sandwiches that were eaten out here I had some folks here in tabone message me on Facebook saying hey I got a hot pot of Gumbo waiting for you if you need it let me know so that just really just goes to show the folks down here in Tbone are so caring so as we watch this move in as you all said it's it's hidden um tabone now within the next 2 hours it'll make landfall woo that is a big big big big wind gust that's picking up right now um but as I was saying as this moves through tabone just know that our thoughts are with you all we are here monitoring the situation for you um we're thinking of you we know that Ida was just three years ago and that's kind of top of mind right now but this is not an Ida and just be sure that you're in your safe place at this point reporting live from H Lily Cummings WWL Lou all right Lily thanks so much for giving us those amazing just all that incredible information we're glad that you are in your safe space uh but you are giving us a great window on what's Happening down there I mean it really does seem like things are starting to pick up yeah we can hear that wind it's very loud it certainly is um thanks again Lily you know uh we do want to add something really quick Kenner the City of Kenner is posting having a little bit of trouble on that they're having some issues with their sewage system apparently they're asking people in kener to not wash their clothes or use their dishwashers uh as you can see here due to the ground saturation from excessive rain this past week and the anticipation of rain brought by Hurricane Francine they're asking residents to conserve water usage to alleviate strain on the sewer system uh sewer systems can become a problem in situations like this for that very reason and so they're really just encouraging people not to use too much water and this did happen after Hurricane Ida as well I remember that they were asking everyone to please not overuse water just be conservative with it and give the utilities a chance to catch up yeah and we heard David Hammer earlier asking uh entg New Orleans CEO Diana Rodriguez about that very thing as well for New Orleans they had some issues with sewer lift stations uh not being able to operate because of power problems back after Ida so he was really questioning her about whether or not those systems had been hardened uh so it's not just kener um it could be a problem anywhere it's a good idea honestly to not run that dishwasher not run that washing machine right now until you know some of this water has gotten to get out but David Hammer is keeping tabs also on the sewage and water board for us today as we've mentioned Pump Station 6 has been a bit of a problem mhm yeah it certainly has and he has this report yeah we're out here at Pump Station number six that's that's the pump station that serves both Orleans and Jefferson parishes it's just off of mety road on the 17th Street Canal I'm joined by two council members one from Jefferson Parish one from New Orleans Jefferson Parish uh Scott Walker and from New Orleans Joe juso uh first of all to to you first Scott the uh Pump Station 6 here has a major pumping capacity but it went down for a few hours during Ida and that caused major issues from flooding in Old mety for your residents what do you have to say about readiness this time yeah and good to hear that pump station 6 is in a much better place now than it was then but then it was probably in a good spot too until it wasn't so we always have to look at where things are where things might be and I know that our Public Works director is in constant contact with people here at Pump Station 6 and if anything happens we are notified immediately about it so we know how to prepare and we know how to Pivot but the southern part of old mety does depend on this so it's a pump station that we depend on yet have no control over and you actually had some water in houses during Ida I think it might have been the only part of the parish where you actually had water in houses and not typically yet doesn't happen in Jefferson Parish so it's certainly something we want to avoid and this will this will be a good uh dry wet run so to speak for Pump Station 6 and everything you know knock on wood looks good so far Joe yeah Joe I mean this is a major pump station for the New Orleans side as well we know that there's a difference between preparedness an actual execution though we know that there's some issues in New Orleans for instance the old Carolton uh underpass pump is down and that actually flooded in a regular rainstorm just a few weeks ago but we also know that the sewage and waterboard system has the most power Readiness that it's ever had for self-producing power can you talk about that yeah look right now sujan waterboard has 70 megawatts full of power they need 44 to operate the fact that they have almost double what they need is a really big deal Scott I think alluded to the other thing which is communication is key their website crashed for a little while yesterday cuz we were directing so much traffic to it that's maybe a first that happened for them and we want people to continue to use that website so they can see what's actually happening in real time and water certainly doesn't know Parish lines so New Orleans Jefferson Parish doesn't matter in a storm like this it what matters is keeping water out of people's homes and making sure this thing works properly now another major point of coordination is with the Southeast Louisiana flood protection authority which controls the outfall canal uh pump stations and closure stations and then all the major closure complexes they are not closed yet at the lake but they're getting close I think it's 2 and 1/2 ft in these outfall canals and the trigger point is three feet on one of them and four on the other two uh they're not sure what they're going to do yet what is the coordination going to be like with that well look we rely on them to actually monitor everything that goes on they've always been very good partner ERS and look when that water hits that Mark they jump into action and look we were on a caller today I know Jefferson Paris you all had your briefing everybody's talking and communicating in real time to one another to make sure those things get closed as actively as they needed to and in Jefferson Parish there's also pontiff playground which plays a key role because you actually use it to pump water in and get it out of the communities where does that stand right now Scott yeah pontiff is a great resource to have uh it makes the playground used for a few days for recreation which is fine because nobody's using it anyway but it's got a levy ring all the way around it and it retains water really really well it holds a lot of water so that is a huge resource for us to have on the backside of oldy where we know old mety just like the rest of Jefferson Parish has some smaller drainage pipes in some places and it's old infrastructure so we don't drain as quickly as we'd like to because it's so old but Pon is a big help massive pumps push that water into pontiff playground there is a pump on the back side of pontiff at the back gate the Falcon Road pump that is installed as a temporary pump right now because the main pump there is being repaired but there should be no difference in capacity between the temporary pump and the the regular pump that's there yeah so basically the story is that the two parishes are coordinating and the sewage and waterboard which does play a role for both parishes even though it's mainly in New Orleans is more ready with power and their pump capacity than they've been in a long time before a storm 70 megaw of power where at their maximum they really only need 44 so they have redundancy in place and this is a really good sign both of these gentlemen are here to check out things and they say that everything is looking good but again the key is execution so for now reporting from Pump Station 6 on the Orleans Jefferson Line David Hammer WWL Louisiana all right it sounds like they have capacity under control and I know that they're going to be watching it very closely as David just mentioned with um you know Scott Walker and Joe juso there yeah very important pump there absolutely all right we're going to get right out to uh Chris Franklin who is of course keeping an eye very close eye on herane Francine on the eye on the eye keeping an eye on the eye and maybe a little bit of levity we were talking about hungering down but but it's official there is a tab on the National Weather Services page that says hunker down so you know I got a tweet that the I got a tweet that the hunker down drinking game is going well for someone at home we we got to slow down we need to slow down right it's only 3:30 yeah don't yeah a lot of hours left this is nothing you want to play around with and I that I won't say it just stay in place we already saw that the eye wall is making its way toward cadry but certainly into Western tabone Parish along the coastline and as Alexa mentioned people are asking when will it make landfall well kind of a loose term we're already seeing some of the worst of the storm making its way onto land but it won't be until that Cent of the eye actually crosses the coast when that occurs that is the official landfall of the storm but some very intense rain and definitely your strongest winds occurring from the five mile Oak so well just to the or just to the South I should say of Morgan City so Morgan City winds are picking up now down toward cadra we have Lela Cummings in h and those strongest winds are moving in her Direction there were a couple of times where you could see how strong the winds were from where she is positioned and she is in a safe position but the winds will start to increase very quickly in the lower Bayou parishes and continue northward again the storm motion is at 17 M an hour we'd like to see that continue at a very quick Pace there is nothing that indicates that it would be slowing down as far as the metro area goes we do have a Street flood advisory but no one should be on the roads thankfully what had been some fairly intense rains that just rolled through we are getting a little bit of a break and what we've also not really seen KN on wood is any train where you get heavy bands just moving over the same locations thankfully we've not really seen that and hopefully we don't really see that as the storm itself is moving fairly quickly usually those tend to be more of an issue with the slow moving storms and those feeder bands just keep moving over the same locations and you're kind of hoping that that band will start nudging a little bit more to the north as far as the NorthShore goes kind of a moderate rainfall with a few and occasional breaks as we continue through the afternoon hours as we've been watching very very closely on the visible satellite this is our high resolution this actually gives us uh more realtime information than even the radar can provide these images are taken every minute you'll also find some little kind of Darker spots within the Eastern side that is drier air where we get some breaks notice this little burst of convection right over tabone Parish with the storm moving Inland so those little firing up thunderstorms would likely increase those wind speeds or at least the wind gusts as the storm is moving Inland so right now kind of what had been fairly weakening storms getting a new little area of convection and of course they're happening right along the coastline so that is likely why we had those bursts of some of the higher wind gusts just a moment ago at cadry and again for uh folks down in hom that is moving in your direction very very shortly the wind gusting at times have been in excess of 115 or I should say up to 115 mph waiting for the 4:00 advisory and again we are now getting hourly advisories as the storm is now within radar range so we can kind of get immediate fixes on where the center of the storm is what we want to see is that start to increase northeasterly at 17 mil an hour watching it very closely on radar and as mentioned that new little burst of convection is likely the culprit for that strong wind gust or the strong wind speeds and wind gusts that we saw in cadry model's doing a fairly good job of indicating the Southern and kind of Southeastern side of the storm a little bit more eroded from some of the heaviest rainfall due to the interaction now of that drier air as we continue through the evening and night that dry air will continue to wrap around that may really displace where some of the heaviest rainfall totals are which then does kind of complicate exactly where some of the heaviest rain will occur again that's usually kind of a more broad brushed forecast usually what we can do best is try and give you just kind of a rough estimate of what we could see over the entire area and then highlight some higher totals that are potential and in more isolated locations we've also been highlighting exactly where the trajectory takes the storm over Southeast Louisiana would likely be the corridor of some of the heaviest of the rainfall now as far as timing goes as we continue through the early morning hours still a cat one because we again expecting it to move very quickly but taking the heav of the rainfall out of Southeast Louisiana so we will begin seeing almost immediate improving conditions not rain and then clear skies but lessening rainfall weakening winds and the storm surge starting to subside as we go later into the night and certainly through early tomorrow morning as a lot of folks are starting to wake up by Thursday folks have been asking when can I then get out on the roads first wait for our morning newscast we will be interviewing officials finding out exactly where the most damage is what roads may be closed we don't know if trees are down power lines live wires and you don't want to go messing around with that so just give it a little bit of time tomorrow morning let the officials kind of make those initial assessments figure out what is clear what isn't but certainly conditions will be improving to where officials will be able to go out almost immediately tomorrow morning and begin making those assessments continuing up to the north and we'll continue to see clearing and improving conditions same basic output from the Euro euro is a little bit with the center closer to where the Hurricane Center is indicating but still indicating kind of that Dy high air a bit of a shift in some of the heaviest rainfall more North and on the western side of the storm which again is more atypical of a tropical system we're still into the heavy rainfall more Northshore late tonight and then after midnight 1 2 300 a.m. that heavy rainfall shifting into Mississippi and we will start to see those improving conditions we're starting to get close to some of the um Inland weather stations and I actually asked Lily she's in our mobile forecast Center she's not exactly sure how to do it but I said if you can set up our weather station we do have a mobile weather station that we can get realtime weather information and with her being in h I'd like to start collecting some weather information down that close of the storm we can see measurably what the winds are doing where she is but some of our buoys nearby aren't reporting anything but the center of the storm we have a couple of what we call camman stations that are maintained by the state and they are the ones that have been reporting some of those higher wind gusts such as the one we had reported in cadry now a little bit further Inland we do have those winds starting to increase especially on the Southshore and we are getting gusts over 20 M hour even north of the lake but they are in excess of 30 to 40 mph wind gusts in the metro area so sustained winds have been at about 20 plus mil an hour and they will only increase through the rest of this afternoon and evening and again this is the GFS model it's not a perfect representation but it does give us a better idea of what we could start to see with regards to the increasing winds and what those speeds may be it's certainly going to be an excess of 40 plus to 50 mph wind gust now what's interesting is yesterday night or actually early this morning when I was still here it was still indicating the threat of hurricane force wind gusts not really doing that any longer not to say that that is certainly off the table but it is interesting that the GFS model is kind of backed off on maybe those higher wind gusts that far away from the center certainly a little bit closer to the center but what's always a little bit more complicated with the forecast is as that storm does start to move Inland and with that dry air kind of spreading out it does tend to allow for that Windfield to kind of expand a bit before it completely dissolves so we will be watching what the Windfield does as it moves in what we're kind of into at the moment is not as much guessing with what the storm is going to do uh where the storm is going to go at what intensity is it going to make landfall we're now kind of in the mode of we're looking at it as it is occurring and what those impacts are we can try and project those out by a few hours but really as the storm is making landfall and nearing the coastline we're kind of more in the here is what we are seeing at this time and not as much projecting out what could happen estimates of at the highest Windfield uh or excuse me maximum wind gust forecast again we kind of have that Corridor of 50-day it looks like this has shifted a little bit we might be getting close to getting the 4:00 uh forecast change because this doesn't really line up exactly with what the uh forecast attract from the Hurricane Center was a little bit earlier so we will see and kind of reassess that far as the heavy rainfall totals go again anywhere from 3 to even 7 in notice there seems to be at least based on this a little bit of a kind of a tight gradient with regards to how much rain you see in maybe a trace or half inch of rainfall to 3 in most of the model guidance indicated that the heaviest totals would be more on the western side so again as the models are trying to project out several hours information and data is now changing almost hour by hour and the models struggle to to kind of compensate for that and we only get the forecast official forecast from the Hurricane Center which is what most of these uh products are based upon uh every eight hours or every yeah every eight hours so there will be in between times where it doesn't seem like what we're showing as a forecast really matches up with what is exactly happening now and that's because the computer models just cannot uh produce that output cannot produce those forecasts fast enough so we will see at times it doesn't seem like we're following along with what is happening in reality that's why I say we're now more in the mode of not as much forecasting out as we're looking at what is occurring at this time and sometimes the computer models just aren't able to keep up with what is happening in reality especially as we're starting to see the impacts on land storm surge total numbers really have not changed even since yesterday and again they are continuing to rise now and will continue right up to the point of after it has moved Inland and we start to see those water levels drop which again will occur probably by later on tonight so the total numbers that we have been showing you since yesterday have really not all that uh are really not all that different no buoys to show the wave heights right near the center of the storm but estimates are 20 to even 30 foot wave heights and this is not storm surge these are just the wave heights but even far away from the storm we're getting 8 to 10 ft along the Texas 5 to 7 ft east of the mouth of the river so it is really churning up the Gulf of Mexico that risk of tornadoes will be there we're already under a tornado watch we've seen a couple of warnings but as we've mentioned is sometimes as soon as we get the warning it is moving so quickly it uh tend not to it's very difficult to exact uh to to kind of project out where the storm that tornado potential is going because the storm themselves are moving so quickly it's all within the outer rotation or the broad rotation of Francine as it continues to push Inland what we did see and models had done a good job of indicating we would start to get that quicker forward motion as now this upper troughing is kind of taking over the steering of Francine that upper troughing is also helping to keep that wind shear up and that looked to be why we saw a lot of those taller Cloud tops around the core kind of fall apart looks like a little area is trying to redevelop on land but that may be just kind of the little pulsating thunderstorms around the main center of the storm not really a long-term Trend with regards to it trying to further strengthen right before landfall that does not look to be the case dry air wrapping around hopefully that plays a bigger role in just how much rainfall we see here as we have had some decent rainfall amounts thus far today already over 2 Ines of rainfall at belchase and we will continue to add to these totals throughout the afternoon and I'm sorry I could not hear my producer telling me where we're going now oh okay we're going back down to Hom with Lily Cummings and Lily I don't know if you were able to set up our weather station to start getting some wind observations but we could just base it on if your hat is still on your head Chris you say JUMP I say how hi you told me to set up this weather station we got it going but here's the thing I am not a meteorologist so I'm going to give you the numbers on the weather station and we can tell viewers exactly what they mean how does that sound all right so we have the weather station that's set up here in the parking lot you can see the top of it spinning really really rapidly that is going to give us an indication of our winds so Chris I believe you were saying that the winds were coming out of the East we were showing here on the weather station Northeast at this moment now that has been fluctuating up and down between about 9 up to 21 mph so the gust the largest gust that we've seen so far 21 mph wind gust we're also showing here on the little weather station um Center that we've got 98.5 as the pressure and again Chris I don't know what that means but I know that it's getting higher it does that mean that the storm is intensifying is it getting stronger no you should see and again we just set it up so what you should start to see is that pressure lower as the center of the storm moves closer to you and those wind speeds and the wind gusts will start to pick up again the wind field thankfully and this does give us a good ide IDE of just how large that Windfield is Lily is in h storm outer wall is moving toward cadry and so the Windfield is still rather small we're getting those higher gusts at cadry but not too far to the North in h uh gusting only up to 20 plus miles an hour so the winds will continue to increase where you are and that pressure would start to lower because the center of Francine hurricanes tropical storms are low pressure centers so we should start to see that pressure uh drop and that means the storm is getting closer to you uh we'll likely see that trend for the next couple of hours okay so we are going to keep an eye then on that pressure number like I said right now 98.3 now I am getting some gust of wind it says from the Northeast up to 21 miles an hour um would that is that reflective of what you're seeing there at the station that is um probably close I mean these aren't perfect they're supposed to be out in the middle of kind of an open area if there are any buildings trees like that that can kind of um distort the the real numbers but again that's kind of giving us a rough idea of what the winds are doing and again that will also be a great indicator as those winds increase that the storm is getting closer to you and that outer wall is approaching more Northern tabone and toward kind of that uh Northeastern corner of lefou as well Northwestern corner of lefou as well we just had a gust that went all the way up to 24 here on the weather station so things are um they seem to be picking up when we first set this up I know Chris you said it would take a little bit to calibrate it but the numbers were between 5 to 10 miles an hour and then occasionally oh whoa that's a 27 mph gust right there that it just read um so like I said they were between 5 and 10 but now it seems like the lowest that they're going is about 16 so it definitely seems that the wind is picking up here I mean obviously we can feel it you can see it on the trees that are moving um around us obviously the rain kind of at some points we saw earlier kind of look like it was going sideways on us down here in h that is good if because the official uh weather station in h uh is not reporting data so they've actually been out for quite a while the closest one is to your East in gallano winds there are gusting at about 25 mph now that is a little bit farther away from the center uh but that does look like it kind of uh validates what numbers you are showing there uh actually if you can figure out what direction is north you point the weather station to the north and that'll give us a more accurate um I'm not asking you to go back out in the rain but if it is pointed toward the north that is what gives us uh the more accurate wind direction on the anomet uh and then for the wind speed um we're again getting accurate data so that is pretty much in line with what we would expect you know where you are positioned but inti at that the winds are going to be increasing uh through the next couple of hours right Chris I'll keep an eye on this and make sure I'm recording some of the higher numbers that we get um obviously it's showing right now like I said anywhere between 16 to 27 mph so as you all can see I'm using this very fancy device here it's connected to our weather center that's out here behind me in the parking lot and then we have our mobile forecast Center which also gives you some different camera angles so we've got a lot of high technology out here but I appreciate you Chris um walking me through this and telling viewers exactly what it means no it's good information and again that is will'll be telling as the storm is getting closer to you we'll see that pressure fall and the wind's coming up it already does look like the pressure is dropping a little bit I mean not crazy but 97.9 now so that's it it's dropped even just in the time that we've been talking and it will it will keep dropping until it passes over great stuff all right well we are going to continue to monitor this for you and give you some data thanks Lily great stuff from Lily Cummings there is setting up our mobile forecast Center to really give us some data from where she is of course we have all the data from the National Weather Service coming in to our meteorologists as well so we've got you cover it out there yeah it's nice to have a couple different ways to get all these numbers so we'll let her calibrate even more we'll check back in with her in a little bit without a doubt unfortunately when we have hurricanes and we have sit situations like the other day when we started running out of gas we have situations where people start to price gouge and to start to take advantage of people and the Attorney General's office for the state of Louisiana has always featured a um price gouging um hotline that people can call a consumer hotline uh to report things like that because it is a crime and so our attorney general for the state has agreed to join us here live this afternoon to give us an update on uh her response attorney general Liz murl can you hear us yes I can hear you good to be with you Katie thanks so much for being with us we really appreciate it um how are things going up in Baton Rouge uh it's looking pretty good here it's starting to get a lot breezier I just went outside and so the wind is definitely picking up and then monitoring things down on the post pretty closely but I think all things considered we've been through uh we've been through a lot of storms in our state and I think this one's going to move pretty fast and we'll be we'll be out check on uh checking on people and property tomorrow byon have you all gotten any reports of any kind of price gouging or consumer complaints at this point I have not received a lot of reports of that um In This Storm I think we have in the past often received those kinds of complaints we know that it can be a problem and we have detailed guidance about it on my website at www.v.com with instructions on how you can make a complaint okay when it comes to the response you said you're going to maybe be checking on some people tomorrow can you tell us a little bit about the unified command group briefing from this morning and what's your what's you're hearing about the response today sure so the unified command group is basically all the main public officials the cabinet members from the governor all the elected Statewide officials and a number of other people from FEMA or state government uh or even outside so entg always has a representative there and we try to go through all the contingencies and planning to both prepare for and then respond to the storm as it's happening and then to respond afterward so it's a it's a process we go through every single time um I've been doing it now for about 12 years and this morning we we essentially kind of went through what the status is of the shelters that are open whether there's any problems that anybody's experiencing so we were still in the stage where the storm hadn't hit yet now we're in the stage where the storm is hitting and so we're monitoring what's happening okay important stuff uh coming out of that Command Center um you know I know that you've had a very close eye on the criminal justice system down here in New Orleans we heard from our Orleans Paris Sheriff that a lot of inmates were being moved around the state um some lower level offenders released um in anticipation of this storm event do you know if similar things are happening in other parts that may be impacted by this storm and what are your thoughts on that well thanks Katie I'm not aware that's happened anywhere else um I think that I was very concerned about the release of prisoners from the prison without coordinating with other state officials and I I really think that that's not a very good practice we are we are all coordinating very deeply every time there is an incident and we have a lot of boots on the ground police are responding to things like down to lines and and and trying to make sure that there's no looting and no other criminal activity so I'm going to work with public officials as we move forward to try and make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen yeah I would think that coordinating and you know making that a real concerted effort is something that everyone would want to happen even to the highest levels of government which of course you are um so important thing to keep tabs on um anything else that people should be concerned about as we are watching this hurricane start to make landfall well we want everybody to stay inside right now now that's the most important instructions that I think all public officials are getting are giving it's you know the storm's going through our state it is going to move quickly and after the storm we have resources on my website that are available there is a checklist there for um avoiding that help people avoid contractor fraud and so I would encourage people to go there and use those resources so that they're not taken advantage of by people who may be coming in after the storm any top recommendations for for people as they're trying to select a contractor even you know one of the things that people end up having to hire people for after a storm is to help them remove debris from their yards even cutting down trees and things like that any tips well I think you know one of the things that we always say is get some competitive estimates that's one thing that I think is helpful in determining whether or not you're getting a fair price uh pay with a credit card not with cash U don't make big upfront cash payments uh get get make sure that they are licensed and insured through the proper license ing agency depending on what the work is that they're doing and uh and make sure that they have insurance that covers their workers and any negligence or anything that they are doing on your property so those are all tips that you can find on our website along with that checklist which I think is very helpful certainly yeah a checklist would be very helpful we always know that after storms like this is when people do sometimes get into those sticky situations with roofers or contractors or scams things like that so lots to watch out for as we head into recovery mode after Francine is through one of the things I'd say is to look out for fake officials we have seen that as a scam that sometimes happens after storms and no officials from government are going to ask people for money okay right absolutely we've heard that from a lot of Sheriff's offices and police departments where people will even go so far as to fake phone numbers to make it look like it's someone else get a little bit of personal information just so that they have sort of an edge and a little opening to the door to your your financial information um and so they're able to take advantage of you that way hopefully we don't see that in large scale after this but you know I I mean I think it's a concern as is you know misinformation out there another another concern that I assume uh is something that you will probably keep an eye out for yeah and I you know people I think people are vulnerable after a storm they they're trying to to get their property back in order they feel like they need to get get it done as fast as possible sometimes they do need to get it done as fast as fast as possible and mitigate that damage but we just want to try and make sure that people aren't taking advantage of and and we see it every time we just want to educate and give them the tools that they as many tools as we can to fight that kind of problem all right attorney general Liz Merl thank you so much we appreciate you spending time with us we hope everything is okay in Baton Rouge and this is an easy recovery for everybody yes I hope so too hope everybody safe and warm and uh and doesn't have any damage or casualties yes word gets taken advantage of thanks so much we appreciate you being with us uh we than for we're continuing to uh watch as hurricane Francine is just making its very early stages of landfall along Louisiana's Coast those intense outer bands of the storm have been working their way through the Metropolitan New Orleans area and further north up through the NorthShore yeah I believe Mike McDaniel is up on the NorthShore he's been there watching things and it looks like he's got Lake pona train behind him there hey Mike how are things up there yeah good old Lake pona train some of those outer bands from the storm are starting to move through now we had some move through a little bit earlier they were getting sort of intense and all of a sudden it just stops right that's how these things work and we're just now getting another one right now the emergency director here in St tamy Parish expects the worst part of the storm specifically when it comes to winds to be between about 8:00 p.m. and 2: a.m. so he wants folks to be aware of that of course with the eyew wall of this storm moving moving just west of here most likely or mostly in uh tangoa Parish now these these bands out here they are leading to some localized flooding especially here on lakw Drive which is kind of prone to flooding in this area you can kind of see the wind as well as the rain kind of hitting the water that's already standing in the street down there there were some cars and folks out here a little bit earlier mandaville police have already come through cleared everybody out made everybody believe because they're afraid of the storm surge that's going to come in and kind of push the Water and Lake pona train over the boardwalks here which is kind of to the left and down it's it's risen a lot since we've been here it's not quite topping things just yet but if you look off in the distance you can see it's just kind of gray out there you can't see much of like pona Trin at all the biggest concerns in St tamy Parish with this storm right now as it is are potential tornadoes and storm surge which could be 4 to 6 feet the Paris president does not expect River lever levels however to rise to any type of really concerning level but of course if there's a change in a wind strength he knows that can change at any point right now he expects gusts of up to about 60 MPH folks across the parish are now being advised to stay inside and stay off the roads until everything has cleared up there are more than 270 firefighters ready to respond along with additional officers from the Sheriff's Office and police stations around this Parish power outages are expected of course down trees as well so it's going to take some time depending on the severity of the storm to get everything kind of cleared out of the way and get power back on to some folks Paris leaders say these storms really are something they prepare for year round and they assure residents that they are ready for whatever is to come they did hold a news conference a little bit earlier today to kind of talk about some of the preparations take a listen to what the parish president had to say Now's the Time to stay where you are or get to a safe location of course time is ticking and the time frame is uh increasingly reduced please stay off the roads let our First Responders do their jobs plan to stay where you are until tomorrow morning our first line of action tomorrow morning as far as Parish government is to do an assessment of our roads uh our state highways DOD will do their assessment we will do an assessment on our Parish roads and identify where where trees debris need to be removed and just as we were talking as you were listening to the Paris president there the wind has really started to pick up as these bands kind of push through I wanted to kind of give you a better visual of the rising levels here in Lake Pon train at least on the lakeef front that's about a foot of water left needed to rise before it starts to really overtake the boardwalk there and that's kind of why mandville police were out here clearing all the cars that were in the parking lot you can see it's kind of empty now they were scared that this water would get a little too high for anybody who may be I don't know just come out here to take pictures take in the scenery and then maybe get trapped in here so they've kind of forced everybody out they were than thankfully they were uh kind enough enough to let us get out here and kind of do these live shots for you guys um something but to note for folks who may be concerned with wind and don't have a place to say maybe you're in um subar housing or some type of unit that you really don't trust in the in the wind there are no shelters in St Tam Parish right now but if you do need some type of assistance you want to go ahead and get that taken care of now you can call the parish and they will try to link you up with a uh like a faith-based organization which they've been working with to try and find you shelter live on the lakefront Mike McDaniel WWL Louisiana ladies right I know uh Mike we've been talking about the rivers up there as well did you hear anything about the rivers at that news conference yes so the parish president said a little bit earlier that he does not expect any type of concerning level to come from those Rivers so right now everything should be good but if the winds pick up and that surges a little bit more than as expected all depending on the severity of the storm that could change but right now that 4 to 6 feet is what he's expecting but he doesn't expect at this point River levels to be any type of major concern okay and Mike we also know that whenever the lake starts pushing up a lot of water it goes into those neighborhoods right along the mandaville lakefront too you seeing any of that we did so just on our drive here like we just showed you with Lake Shore Drive if you want to spin back around to that um Adam here it's actually getting a little bit uh more water in it but in driving through these neighborhoods here in mandville on Lakefront we crossed over like a a creek or a drainage ditch or some type of water outlet and some of the Yards are just already flooded at this point uh and it what hadn't over taking the road where we were at that point but the roads along Lakeshore Drive where we are this is the scene for much of it you have some dry spots that are a little higher than the rest of them but a lot of it kind of looks like this and you saw some trucks kind of going through it just a few minutes ago so it really just shows you the amount of water that does collect when rains like this come in and this is just the beginning of it of course right so all the places around here there's a yard over here the yach club over here to the right that's starting to collect a little bit of water around some of those uh CRP myrtles down there so it it more more to come right so yeah we are still getting some flooding in this area but right now um Paris leaders say it's time to be home time to be where you need to be it's time to have finished the preparations and stay put all right Mike thank you so much we appreciate you and we have peace [Music] [Applause] [Music] hurricane Francine has gained strength it is now a category 2 hurricane making its way onto Louisiana's Coast as we speak I'm Deon Balada along with Katie Moore here we've been covering this all afternoon but the 4:00 update just came down so let's get right out to chief meteorologist Chris Franklin with that update Chris yeah not suris it's not something we wanted to see but I was talking the last time I was with you this little burst of convection we had seen a lot of those taller Cloud tops really getting ripped apart by the dry air and wind shear and almost its last ditch effort the storm was able to kind of concentrate a little bit of energy get this explosion of thunderstorms and that is where we found Winds of 100 milph which does now make this a category 2 so it will be pushing on land throughout the next couple of hours as a cat 2o not on land just yet while we are seeing kind of the outer uh North Eastern eyewall which is where the strongest of the winds are we were talking about those wind gusts earlier in cadry that's where we're getting some of the strongest winds on land in tabone Parish kind of also extending into St Mary Parish now the motion still toward the Northeast at 17 mil an hour and really aside from that uh kind of burst of convection that increase in the winds we also saw the pressures decrease at 972 now really nothing else has changed with regards to what impacts we are anticipating through the rest of this afternoon evening and tonight how large the Windfield will be this is very concentrated right around the northeastern center of the storm and it is right within that eyewall nowhere else you're really going to find Winds of 100 mph so again as far as the impacts go it does not change anything the good news is this will keep moving very quickly and will already be out of the state by about 1 or 2 a.m. but on radar that is where we're getting those initial bursts of those strongest Winds of now being reported by the hurricane Hunters of 100 mph so that does make it a category 2 again this is kind of the last ditch effort by the storm to get a little bit more out of the energy that has um kind of been able to concentrate around that Center and almost despite the fact that we do have that strong wind shear in place it was able to take advantage of that little bit of energy and right before it moves on the on Shore again in the next couple of hours we're still probably a almost two hours away from a landfall eyewall is certainly Crossing on land but we have to wait for the actual center of the eye to cross the coast that is the official landfall of the storm but where are we getting some of those intense rains and likely some of the strongest winds five mile Oak Southwest of Morgan City over Morgan City uh we have Lily Cummings in Homa she's probably starting to get inundated with some intense rainfall and some of the strongest winds those continue down toward chauan cadry you're almost now kind of in the eye of the storm we'll have to look at we've got a couple of cameras that are down toward the coast we'll have to take a look at those in just a moment but this is moving very quickly notice racein Tibido just now getting on kind of the uh northern part of the eye wall itself where you're going to find more of those intense winds we'll see what the wind reports are from around the Tibido area to see if they match or we were able to find even those 100 mph winds and something that is at times almost misleading there may be one observation point that was able to find the the 100 mph winds and then elsewhere even nearby you don't find Wind supportive of that so we just have to find that one observation with winds kind of at the highest point to Mark what the full strength of a hurricane is you may not find those 100 m on our winds elsewhere within the band of of the eyewall that is now moving on Shore again the center is not too far away so that will be Crossing probably within an hour maybe at the most 2 hours which is about what the hurrian Center had been saying as of their kind of updated forecast last night that we' probably be looking at more of a late afternoon evening time frame for the storm to make landfall and it looks like that is coming to fruition again wind or excuse me motion toward the Northeast at 17 hopefully in the next several observations we'll start to see those uh that forward motion increase a little bit more we're getting another round of some more of those intense rains over the metro area as I said though they are moving very very quickly and that has also been an issue we only have had a couple of tornado warnings issued but if we do see any additional it kind of Falls Within These Little cells that race through very very fast and at times they tend to be embedded within some high wind gusts so they're very hard to track they usually don't really show up on velocities very well because you've got this the usually weaker wind of uh rotation the the wind speed signature within strong winds associated with a hurricane a land falling hurricane so sometimes those little spin up tornadoes are either not actually occurring because the again these are usually radar um indicated not actually observed on the ground and they tend to be embedded within some strong winds either way heavy rainfall at times in pockets on the North Shore and also into Mississippi that will continue and start to increase as we go through the rest of the afternoon and again conditions as they are worsening for parts of Southeast Louisiana they will continue to worsen until the Storm Center is on land and moving away so it kind of is a buildup to the worst of the storm and then a gradual decrease and Improvement of weather as we had later on into the night tonight so we are really just now getting into the worst of the storm beginning along the coastline a lot of folks have been asking why are we paying so much attention to the Bayou parishes because the Bayou parishes are getting the brunt of the storm we should also see the storm gradually weakening once it loses that warm water its source of energy but something we talked about in Ida there is the Brown ocean effect with the storms and it especially is true in Southeast Louisiana once it crosses land we know anyone that lives in the bayou parishes especially crossing land is a very loose term it is still very much over Bayou and marshes so it is still able to gain some energy or at least maintain some energy even over those warm Marsh Waters they are very shallow but they tend to have temperatures in the lower 80s so as as long as it is over some source of moisture even at times it just has be saturated ground even ground that is solid but has been saturated by water that too can lead to what is called the brown ocean effect so as it crosses land we don't tend to in Louisiana see it immediately start weakening it tends to be a little bit of a slower process what we will have going in our favor is the increasing wind shear the dry air and the fact that it is moving very very quickly and that forward speed it doesn't look like it's going to slow down if anything it should start to speed up as we go later on into the afternoon so as on visible sat or we were showing you visible satellite a moment ago this is now the infrared coloriz and it did show what looked to be promising was all those thunderstorms were really starting to fall apart it looked like finally the wind sheer drier air taking over and it was able to get that one little last burst of energy to kick up the winds to 100 m hour and as you see at the bottom of the screen has made it a category 2 storm so nothing else has changed impacts we not expecting anything different the forward speed hopefully will start to pick up kind of move the uh graphic here a little bit again this is the position estimated by about 1:00 a.m. so roughly 2: to 3: it'll already be moving out of the state so we are not talking about a duration uh moving through Southeast Louisiana like we did with Ida this is going to be a much faster moving storm as far as the heaviest of the rainfall goes we're getting some intense rain at times here but so far rainfall totals and again we're not even at the worst of some of the rainfall has been manageable we're not expecting any widespread flooding and it may be that and this is not exactly what some of the qpf models the quantitative precipitation forecast models have been showing they keep trying to indicate some of the higher totals right along and East and then much much drier off to the West that has not been the trend with the models the models keep trying to show more of the heavier rainfall wrapping around onto the northern and western side and it certainly looks like that may come to fruition as we've had that new little burst of energy on the Northern uh north northeastern part of the storm with the dry air wrapping around we might see that kind of wrap back onto the western side we'll see what the trend is based on satellite data and now radar data as it is well within the range of the Hammond radar throughout the afternoon to see if that is indeed what some of those storms do but again a little bit more of an atypical type storm with the drier side due to that drier air now more on the Southern and even Southeastern quadrant so even as we get toward 10:00 Southshore may already start to see some improvement improving weather with regards to the rainfall still had the stronger winds although it'll be coming from the other direction won't be Southeast it'll be more West and Northwest but we might start getting a break in the rainfall and then as we continue through the later part of the night in the early morning hours heaviest rainfall now lifting and weakening into Mississippi by 2:30 we should see much of Southeast Louisiana already starting to dry out and we have pretty good agreement with both of the GFS and Euro models indicating more of the northern western side with that heavy rainfall and a little bit of a not completely dry but a drier slot on the Southern and Southeastern side of the storm which again would just bring faster breaks in those showers as we continue through the rest of the night and going into the early morning hours then we all start drying out and again immediately improving conditions for the rest of the day winds at Morgan City officially only at 31 mph so you're not too far from the center of the storm we had uh Lily Cummings set up our weather gauge out in h so we'll see what the winds are doing there as the storm closes in but as I mentioned even with those 100 mph winds reported uh with Francine they are going to be in a very isolated location we're not talking about a huge Windfield of 100 plus mph winds that is just not going to be the case uh with this storm in fact the winds Inland and we'll see again as I'd mentioned our hom station the official weather observation station in H has been down for a while so uh closer in gallano sustained winds they're only at 17 M hour and gusting up to 35 and the storm is not too far away so the wind field does appear to be rather small which may be why and I was showing this a moment ago why some of the models have backed down a little bit on just how well now kind of back up a little bit here if we change the uh Viewpoint or change the uh kind of pause position uh the model has the potential of 60 to even 80 plus mph wind gusts in the metro area as we get later onto the night wind gusts like that will do some significant damage now the sustained winds look to be hold holding at about 50 m an hour a little bit later on this afternoon evening going more into the evening hours after Sunset but we could see some very significant wind gusts even in the metro area that would likely cause more tree limbs coming down and that just leads to more power outages hopefully that is a little bit more isolated in nature as I'd mentioned the model for the rainfall keeps indicating this kind of U um track of heavier storms but that really doesn't fall in line with what the Hurricane Center is saying the uh Center Line would be doing or at least the center of the storm would be doing this would likely be the path to some of the heaviest rainfall and with the models GFS and Euro have been indicating and most of that may be a little bit more on the western side so we will see we have to also take into account that drier air with the how it will impact our rainfall totals throughout the rest of the afternoon again we've seen m u manageable rainfall totals thus far but we have not got into the worst of the rain as far as the coastal flooding concerns uh are there we are probably reaching some of the highest levels along our Coastline in tabone lefou as well as out towards St Mary this is probably about the highest as the storm is just starting to move on land as it moves Inland it's going to take some time for that water to begin receding but really as it does further move northward we then start to get more of a Northwest Westerly motion of the wind and that may help to start pushing that water away from the coastline so as I've said we will gradually see improving conditions as soon as later on tonight really less than 12 hours so within the next 12 hours we're going to get the worst of the storm as well as the improving conditions right after the storm has pass through so we don't have a long duration to have to deal with Francine through the night and into early tomorrow morning this is not what we have seen in the past um almost a little bit more typical of kind of like Zeta was not as strong as Zeta was not expecting the I to pass right over the City of New Orleans but kind of the duration of how long we have to deal with the impacts is a little bit more of like what Zeta was and people kept saying Zeta moved in and out now we did have the power outages but it was also a category 3 storm this is not this is not going to be a Zeta but it more in terms of how fast it looks like it's going to move through through uh Southeast Louisiana through the rest of this evening and into the early morning hour so another just real quick as you see at the bottom of the screen Francine did become as of the 4:00 advisory a category 2 hurricane Hunters were able to find within kind of this little burst of thunderstorms those winds now supportive of 100 miles hour which does make it a category 2 the wind field though has really not changed we're actually kind of from some of our observing stations struggling to find winds even supportive of a hurricane let alone 100 M hour wind so the wind field it appears is very very small with the storm and it is a very very small storm so thankfully the worst of the impacts do not look to be very far removed from the center of the storm but at least based on computer models we could see some hurricane force wind gusts a little bit later in the afternoon uh certainly along the coastline and some of our bayu parishes possibly even into the metro area all right thank you oh oh okay move out of the way we're we're live hey hey guys we are in hom at the Civic Center winds have definitely picked up at this point we have reached according to our weather center that we've set up at 1.36 mph right now it's giving me 20 um the sustained winds I'd say it's been on average about 20 M an hour but again that one gust that just flew through and popped this thing off to 36 mph and no joke this little device that we got here says it's raining cats and dogs you can't make this up that's exactly what this device is saying and it certainly is just take a look outside of the Civic Center here you can see the wind the rain definitely coming down so as Chris just mentioned it is getting closer and closer to us right now we can definitely tell um as you can see the weather center out there that's that little white device with the black piece that's spinning spinning spinning round and round that just shows you how fast these winds are moving out here the trees obviously swaying back and forth you can see the water that's just flowing kind of getting uh blown really across the parking lot at this point so a lot of things happening down here things are definitely um heating up in tabone Parish I would say say Chris I'm going to read you some data here cuz I know I was sharing this to uh with you here from the weather center 9 95.6 is now your pressure rate rain rate uh 0.95 and again those miles per hour on the wind speed here coming it's showing between north and east 16 mil hour right now 23 it just jumped and at some points we've gotten up to 36 mph so things are definitely getting stronger and stronger you can see this is really just blowing at this point we actually had to um we've weatherproofed all of our gear down here put some trash bags over it that's typically what you do in a storm like this but we also had a light setup and that we are going to go ahead and put in the car because it is getting so strong that it's knocking things like that over now I'm not really sure exactly what these folks out here are doing but I'm just going to tell you right now that you should not be um out taking selfies or shooting video while you are are standing in the middle of a storm so that's probably what you don't want to do what you're looking at right now we are safe underneath a um covering here that's real sturdy and we are staying dry and underneath that but clearly we've got some folks out here right in the thick of it so not really sure what's going on there but this is what you probably don't want to be doing you can see Rick nce is panning over here to show you all just how the trees and the stop sign here are blowing around so folks if you are in tabone Parish be in your house right now that's where you want to be get your hot gumbo going I know earlier you all were texting me that there are some power outages across tabone Parish at this point I know you were saying um close to 3,000 I don't know if that number has gone up since the winds have increased since we've been out here in the last couple hours now but we are going to continue to monitor those of course for you as well as the wind speeds and the weather obviously right now nobody on the roads that's good to see it's good to see that folks aren't traveling during this because you don't want to get caught in some uh water on the roads or this wind right now at this point so everyone this is the time to be in your safe spot be um at your house and again um just stay safe if you're out in the H tabone Parish area especially folks down the bayou you all were getting that a little bit sooner than the folks up here in hom so we o we are looking here at the weather center again real fast it's showing now 20 mph no I'm sorry 22 M hour winds and again it's telling me it's raining cats and dogs and that pressure as Chris mentioned earlier to me I asked him does the pressure need to increase or decrease he said as the storm moves in it would decrease and that's certainly what we're seeing here 9 95.1 rain rate now 79 and MPH 18 I'm I'm sure Chris can um explain a little bit more about what exactly that means because he is the expert yeah the uh pressure falling is what we would expect rainfall rate is almost misleading because you've got the obviously strong wind so it's not going to be as accurate of a measurement but it is interesting to note what the winds are doing where Lily is and what we'll be telling is that Lily you're within the north eastern part of the eye wall um not too much longer depending upon the structure of it you're going to actually see clearing the rain is going to come to an end you are in then the eye so it'll be calm it'll be fairly quiet but not much later you're going to have the back side the southwestern side of the eye so then you'll get the wind coming from a different direction so whatever side of your face is being slapped by the rain it'll be the other side of your face being slapped by the rain as soon as the eye passes yeah no that would be this side of my face but like I said we are we are safe where we are um really there's not we're not getting too wet underneath here um so we are kind of looking at some folks sideways over here that are out here taking some selfies and some videos out here I'm sure they're getting slapped with this rain right in the face but don't be outside right now don't be doing that um we got you covered here we're keeping you safe we got the numbers coming in and Chris interpreting that for you Lily I know you were asking about the power outages I just looked it up and the number actually just jumped within the last 30 seconds it was right at around 9900 people now we're up to 3,300 people in tabone Parish without power right now on the enter G map so that number has jumped greatly and all of this of course coinciding with the worsening conditions you're seeing there yeah Devon actually we are like I said at the hom of civic center you can actually see um there is a power substation here um across the street so we're actually kind of keeping an eye on that while we're out here as well just to make sure you know we don't see any flashes we don't see any crazy debris or anything fly into there um nothing so far so but I do think that with these winds the way that they are it's not surprising to hear that that number has significantly jumped yeah and there's a good chance it's going to continue to go up from here um Lily you said most people staying off the roads except for the person taking selfies out there not a good idea you know they say imitation is the greatest form of flattery but everyone thinks that they're a a news reporter in situations like this they all want to be a weather reporter like you Lily um but you know you're you're playing it safe and you're doing a great job out there for us and letting people know what's going on without uh putting yourself at risk and that's a really smart thing to do um you can see I guess what Rick well thank you all yeah no yeah looks like I was just going to say thank you for the compliment Katie but also the law enforcement officers are the only folks that I'm seeing on the road at this point we just saw a hom police officer pass by so they've been obviously out monitoring the area and making sure that no one needs help but um no no um civilians out on the road at this point uh interesting to hear Chris say that the eyewall May the eye actually may pass over where you are um any thoughts on that so Katie you know I was actually thinking about this earlier you know the the weather out here obviously rainy really strong winds and all of that stuff but but it's interesting that I'm not hot out here which is very nice I'm not sweating by any means this is definitely rain that's that's dripping down me so um so no it it's it's interesting that he mentioned the eye that's going to pass over us um and that it might let up here for a little bit that would be pretty nice to get a little reprieve down here in hom but as I mentioned we're staying pretty dry underneath where we are here and um not taking on anything too major okay well thank you so much much for your reporting we're going to check back in with you in just a little while and uh we want to see that once you're you know experiencing that for the first time seeing that eyewall pass over I mean it the only thing I can think when I I see Lily shots down there is just how much I hope that this storm doesn't do too much damage you know being down there after Ida again this is not Ida but being down there and seeing the devastation and experiencing that with people down there um it it it was devastating they call it Devastation for a reason I mean it not only physically with all the damage that was done but it's been difficult for people to rebuild and even those who were successful shortly after the storm it's still a part of their Community it's still a part of their family in a lot of cases um so they're still recovering even the Civic Center where she is right now was damaged during Ida even though that was a huge Lifeline for people in the wake of that storm there was still some damage there yeah I do want to make a quick mention about some things that are happening in Jefferson Parish right now um Jefferson Parish is now saying excuse me that due to water infiltration in the sewer lines they're asking you to limit your water usage so please do not run your dishwasher or do laundry right now to avoid over taxing the sewage system in Jefferson Parish that goes for Kenner as well Ken's been talking about that too so I think it's safe to say anywhere in the metro area right now it's not a good idea to turn on your dishwasher it's not a good idea to run that washing machine there's so much water that's going into the ground um and into the sewer systems that it really can overload it quickly and that can lead to sewer backups into your house yeah we don't want that to happen we don't want that to happen we're also starting to see some pretty big power outages the entire western side of Grand Isle is now without power I'm seeing on the map um quite a bit of Road there's not too many homes on this stretch of uh I believe it's it's um help me out with the high the highway to Golden Meadows is it um Highway One Highway one thank you um there there's not too many homes along this particular stretch they at time weting to see that of pieces of and terone Parish thousands of people now without so we're seeing it happen yes this is it this is Francine and Francine the hurricane is certainly uh making itself known to people down there as it's roaring through I mean we saw that with Lily just a little while ago uh the winds are picking up the rain is picking up uh we're getting into that dangerous part of the storm and that outer upper eyewall is you know one of the worst parts of the storm every single time we've covered one of these uh that seems to be the part of the storm that does the most damage um we are however going to change gears a little bit Alyssa Curtis uh is out in Orleans Parish covering that part of our viewing area for us she's in Pines Village this afternoon so uh Alyssa looks like uh there's some flood flooding happening where you are yeah that's exactly right Katie we are we were headed to Venetian Isles but we actually made a call and we're like we're going to stop here because we do see some flooding um you can see coming off the the interstate there is some flooding in certain areas um and in certain areas it's it's pretty um pretty deep I don't want to get too deep into the water cuz I don't know exactly what what is in this but I'm going to walk around and show you guys that this water um is getting pretty deep in some areas here over in Pine Village we're right off of downman and Chef Manor Highway um so some areas are a little drier than others but we are starting to see some flooding um you can probably see the rain is coming down some it it's picking up and then dying down and picking up and dying down and it does feel a little breezier I actually had my umbrella right before you guys tossed to me but I ditched it I put it down because it will get some gust of wind they aren't too strong but they're definitely strong enough again to kind of wobble my umbrella around um it's it's I feel the wind starting to pick up again right now um I do see some people out on the road a few people not too many but you guys don't want to be on the road in this um it's about 4:30 right now um we heard from mayor earlier today saying that we want people in their home shelter in place by 6 p.m. and even council member green said don't even wait until 6: p.m. if you can shelter now we keep saying it hunker down now if you can um if you don't have to be on the roads at now just stay inside get inside stay dry um um again these conditions are only going to worsen as time goes on um so if you can get inside now and you can um take shelter inside now just go ahead and do it now of course make sure everyone is safe um if you need to check on your neighbors check on your neighbors but I am seeing some people out on the road and that's not what we want um I do want to say we are safe right here my photographer is actually under kind of like an overhang um and if conditions worsen right now we are able to get into a safe spot right now I know I'm telling you guys to get indoors and I am clearly Outdoors but um we are safe right now now again that wind is starting to pick up and we're seeing some of the flooding over here um off of Chef and downman um we're not exactly sure what the rest of the area is going to look like as we head closer towards um Venetian Isles again we kind of just stopped on our way and said hey there's some flooding let's show you guys what's going on here um I imagine this flooding is likely only going to get worse as the rain picks up and um we see that extended period of rain um so just be careful if you again I'm going to keep saying it if you don't have to be outside don't be outside um get inside enjoy your snacks enjoy the warmth um but yeah we are starting to see some flooding we're going to continue and look at conditions and monitor these conditions um and just bring you whatever we see but be safe again we are starting to see some flooding so just get indoors I'll send it back to you guys all right thanks Alyssa stay safe where you are uh we are joined once again by Jamie Rome the deputy director of the National Hurricane Center Jamie it's a kind of perfect timing to talk to you because the 4:00 advisory came out and a little bit of a surprise we had been watching uh Francine kind of Hold Steady then this little burst of convection right along the coastline uh right before 4:00 and then we see winds had increased to 100 Mil hour but where was that observation made from that was a observation that we got from our hurricane reconnaissance that was flying in the storm um we were able to use the flight level winds to deduce what was happening at the surface so one thing that we were trying to kind of reiterate to our viewers because we've actually got someone down in h in Northern tabone Paris so not terribly far from where the storms the eyewall is actually moving over uh uh to right now Northern tabone and we're not finding Winds of that magnitude at all so we want to try and reate how small this Windfield of Hurricane force winds uh seems to be yeah so this is a really good point and often people get confused by this and misinterpret hurricanes when we rate a hurricane on the saffer Simpson scale it's based off the peak wind anywhere in the storm and that might be just one little isolated spot um and so it doesn't necessarily mean that everywhere in the storm is experiencing those conditions and it certainly doesn't mean everyone in the path of the storm is going to experience those conditions and this is why you know we're trying to to shift people off an over Reliance on the saffer Simpson scale and get them to look at some of the newer forms of communication and the newer graphics and I agree I think that is what kind of jumped out to to us in the the weather center and to viewers at home when when we said it has become a cat 2 right before landfall after having stressed it's moving in a more hostile environment we were expecting kind of quick weakening it's moving very rapidly uh can we expect maybe a change in the wind forecast Inland with this change in the strength of the storm yeah I mean I don't I don't think for all intented purposes this really changes the narrative much with respect to the storm um because even though this feels like a big jump like it feels like okay we went from category 1 to category two for for you and me as meteorologists this is 5 miles hour right so this is not a big deal uh in terms of the of the overall picture so it's not going to change the narrative um over you know terms of where the hazards are going to go or who's going to experience what um so you know I really want people to just just remember to you know not key in so much on the saffer Simpson scale not to over rely upon it and to just really focus on the hazards and the way you can do that is through the presence of watches and warnings for example if a hurricane warning is up in a community or not and that was great and I think this is really is this correct me if I'm wrong the first time that this uh Inland watch has been used or do we see that um with one of the earlier season storms no that was a change we made this hurricane season where we started adding the Inland watches and warnings to the cone in the past we only had the coastal watches and warnings on the cone those watches and warnings have always been issued by the National Weather Service we just simply didn't have it on the cone by adding it to the cone we're signaling to people that that is really important information that we want them to look at it's the most actionable information that we produce and really is a much better way to convey the actual conditions that they will experience in their Community whereas a saffr Simpson scale just doesn't allow you to engineer or deduce what the conditions will be in your community and we've both been at several of these weather conferences where we've discussed the saff for Simpson scale for years it has been brought up should it be changed or should it be added to should there be more impacts brought up and I don't think social scientists and meteorologists can ever agree on what the perfect way of representing the dangers of a hurricane but this is certainly a a step in that direction to try and have uh folks better understand those dangers not only along the coast but Inland and what those impacts are one thing we've really been stressing though is that the winds and rains will continue to increase with the storm moving Inland as far as storm surge and that was kind of your Forte at the Hurricane Center uh with it now moving almost on Shore will areas still experience worsening storm surge or when will and when will it start getting uh a bit better wait it really depends on where you are some some places will have already experienced their wor storm surge and some places are going to experience over the next several hours um that's what makes storm surge you're really difficult to communicate it's it's you just can't package it up in this neat little box and communicate you one number um but but really to speaking to the your point conditions over much of Southern Louisiana is going to continue to go downhill over the next several hours we're especially worried about greater New Orleans area where the core of the still hurricane is going to be moving very closer even over the city and so we need to make sure that people in that area people who are listening to us from New Orleans get home get to where you're going to be and do it quickly because look how fast this thing is moving now 17 miles hour and get where you want to be and stay there we definitely don't want you on the roads this evening now is that a little bit of a shift in the thinking that at one point it did look like maybe the core would stay more to the west of the city is the thinking now that it may be a little bit more on a northeasterly track that could put it a bit closer to Metro New Orleans I think it's close enough whether it's you know over or to the west of the city it's close enough that they're going to experience a rough night in the city driving conditions are going to be absolutely treacherous especially as the Sun starts going down you're not going to be able to see these flooded roads you're not going to be able to see the trees down uh in the roads you're not going to be able to see down power lines so it's really important that people get where they want to be for the evening and just stay there Jamie Rome thank you so much for joining us great Insight with now uh nearing landfall of uh Category 2 hurricane France scene uh thank you so much for all of your information thank you all right a great update from Jamie Rome at the National Hurricane Center and our of course chief meteorologist Chris Franklin uh interesting to hear his thoughts on um keeping hurricanes and forecasting in perspective um for all of us out there who are watching uh waiting wondering what's going to happen yeah watching waiting and wondering is a lot of what we've been doing today for sure so I I think um it's it's always very good to have the perspective from from outside of this building as well as our experts inside so yeah for sure um and what we're seeing right now out on the ground is lots of heavy wind gusts lots of rain storm surge moving into areas closer along the coast one of the areas that tends to get a lot of water from Lake Ponto train is llas and Paul Murphy has been in St John and around the River Parishes this morning for us he's joining us live now with the latest from there Paul Katie that was a great setup because that is exactly what is happening here in llas and St John Parish uh we've seen the rain pick up we've seen the wind pickup and we were just out on peine road which is a a community right off of uh the low road uh Highway 51 uh north of I 10 it's on the western shore of Lake ponet train and the water was certainly coming up at that point uh in this area uh they were expecting anywhere from 4 to 7 ft of storm surge earlier in the day when we talked with St John Parish uh president jacqulyn hotard she said a 4-foot storm surge uh could put uh push water into those subdivisions in llas that are north of Airline Highway the ones that we've seen uh flood over the years uh so look for some Street flooding in that area uh as the water comes up on Lake pona train uh I just spoke with the state police and uh they tell me that so far there are no roads in this area that are blocked because of flooding because of of the the heavy rains um even that low road Highway 51 which goes along I55 is still open at this point but that doesn't mean it's time for people to go out and Joy Ride uh and luckily as we look across uh L plas a lot of folks are heating those warnings to stay home uh don't go driving right now you never know uh when you're going to hit a patch of water and you never know when a tree could fall onto your car uh in this type of situation uh and earlier we also spoke with St John Paris Sheriff Mike TG who said from here on out it's all hands on deck as we're talking here what is a top of mind for the Sheriff's Office well right now we're in Battle Stations we're ready uh all the officers are in place we're ready as we've been in the past for Hurricane Ida Hurricane Isaac uh we're we have had the unfortunate experience but valuable experience on having to deal with hurricanes in the past so my officers uh we are well staffed we're manned up double double man double officers per unit uh dispatch everybody's right where they need to be so right now we watching the highways and I want to commend the residents of St John Parish and other motorists to stay off of the highways that's just one less problem we have to deal with because as you can see right now the weather conditions are starting to deteriorate so right now hopefully everybody will stop moving and just stay in their safe secure spot all the businesses in St John are pretty much closed if there are any open it's very sporadic so right now it's watch Monitor and if we're needed we're ready uh hopefully we won't be needed so but we're ready to go and what is your expectation with Francine right now uh lot of uh Stormy Weather watching the water from the lake lake Mara Lake Pon train flooding the areas that flood typically we hope it stays to the street level uh but if it gets worse than that we are fully prepared we've been through this before the last storm We rescued 800 no loss of life we like to continue that uh so but if we need it uh we have high water rescue vehicles we have airbats this is not our first time doing this and probably won't ever be the last time but for right now today with Francine we're as prepared as prepared can be and we should also say that we saw uh about three or four high water vehicles that belong to the National Guard on Airline Highway moving towards the National Guard uh post uh in reserve uh they will be stationed there pre- stationed before the storm just in case there's a need for any type of water rescues in this area the Sheriff's Office say as you heard is also well equipped in that regard as well um and we also like to thank the sheriff's officer letting us set up over here at the training center uh their new training center for the duration of the storm uh what' you say Mike lights are going up Transformers are blowing oh Transformers are blowing blowing behind me according to photographer Mike Milani he's warning me that there's a some Transformers blowing so that's an indication uh when when folks decide to to ride out the storm in their homes there is always that great likelihood of losing power uh and then when you lose power then there's always comes out the warnings about generator safety uh keeping those generators about 20 ft from the house and uh letting the generators uh cool down before you refuel them uh so if you have a generator you might want to check and make sure you you have all the safety rules and you follow them so that there are no accidents um so anyway here in in St John uh still waiting on the worst of Francine I'm not exactly sure what that is going to be at this point uh although uh they are ready they're prepared and as you heard Mike T say they're ready for what may come in lla Paul Murphy WWL Louisiana yeah this certainly is not their first rodeo Paul you know llas has been really getting hit hard the last few stor Ms ever since the surge barrier was was built you know they're taking on a lot of that water from Lake Ponto train any estimates from them on how much water they think they might see or is it just sort of impossible to really predict well they were saying that that uh the predictions in this area was originally 4 to 7 ft uh and uh from what uh some folks around here were telling me based on what was on peine road the road that we showed you a little bit earlier uh this afternoon uh they didn't think it was going to be as bad as some of the prior storms you're talking about Isaac you're talking about Ida storms like that that really did push a lot of water into those subdivisions in llas uh so keeping the fingers crossed that you know the locals they know best uh they they have all that anecdotal knowledge and from what they told me it didn't look quite as bad as some of these prior storms Katie oh that's good that's good to hear they certainly are the experts as are you from covering this for us for so many years we appreciate that update from you Paul now Isaac you know it was really interesting it was a category one storm and I think that was one of the first times we really got to see that effect of having the water coming from Lake pona train heading to llas instead of other areas so um it it was the first uh beginning of the trend so to speak not one that llas residents ever wanted to be a part of um but it's something that they're having to deal with pretty regularly before we uh continue on with our coverage I do want to make another mention about the Jefferson Parish issue that we're dealing with because it is such a huge part of our viewing area there is they're they're worried about water infiltration getting into the sewer line so if you live in Jefferson Parish the parish is asking you to avoid using your dishwasher or your washing machine right now and limit your use of water this is both the parish asking this and also the city the city of Kenner separately is asking this limit your water usage make sure that you don't over overload the system the sewage system right now yeah I know it sounds strange there's so much water out there why do we need to conserve water there's tons of it everywhere but what happens is this could cause a huge problem with the sewage system and that's definitely not a problem uh that anyone out there wants to deal with and before we move on really quickly we want to say thank you to everybody out there we know a lot of you are watching us from the WWL Plus app um it is a great new place um where you can take us with you you can download that WWL Plus on your Roku on sck and take it anywhere that you need to go and continue to watch our coverage so if you are keeping tabs on New Orleans and the metro area for friends and family who still live here if you don't um or if you're just watching it in your homes and that's how you're getting us you know this is a great way that you can stream live updates not only on Francine but on just about everything else yeah and even if you decide to leave in the next few days because your power's out and you're uncomfortable you can watch our newscast watch how the recovery is going down here so thank you all for for watching us on uh WWL plus yeah we know you're out there we we we're so glad that everybody's uh keeping up with us you know both over the airwaves and uh digitally now which is really cool well let's head back to Meg Ferris she is Meg is getting hit hard yep there she is getting hit hard down in gallano you know that is down the bayou and Meg how are conditions where you are it's looking rough clearly deteriorated Katie and and Devin we were in uh leave below the floodgates um Levy System earlier we moved up to Golden Meadow and now we are as you said in gallano and clearly the uh wind is picked up majorly I mean we're getting gusts that that almost blow us over and almost blow the camera over now you can see behind me is Bayou lefo and look you can see how much the uh the uh the water is being blown back up the bou here um people have uh anchored their boats all along here but I will tell you there is not a soul there is not a soul on the streets and hadn't been for hours they really listened to the parish president Archie uh chassan when he called when he called a um a curfew for noon and there is not a business open you can see behind me let me step out of the way and you can just see how much the trees are blowing here now the electricity is still on you can see the lights over there at the um at the gas station lights are still on everywhere that we've seen we were in a building earlier we were in a building earlier and um uh and the lights did start flickering but we haven't seen any of those Transformers blow that you've seen um like what Paul and and and Mike Milan experience um in the pl where they are but um I talked to the parish president a little bit ago and I said is there anything you want us to pass on right now to the people and he said no all right now is quiet we've seen just police just driving around making sure all was quiet but I mentioned earlier how there there was this curfew and that um uh that every business had to be shut down at noon and like I said all of them were but we believe it or not we found one nonprofit that was still open and uh it had to do something with a former hurricane take a listen unfortunately after Ida um there was uh a lot of apartment complexes uh neighborhoods uh trailer parks that people had nothing left to come back to their homes were just blown away and while most people took their dogs the majority left their cats and they had nothing to come back to there was no lodging no place to rent and so unfortunately all these animals were out on the street the lefu shelter was inundated with their needs in the northern part of the pro uh parish and so we saw a need here we got our rescue Partners involved and they came and rescued a bunch of them for us but there was still a lot on the street and so we just I had this building here and we decided to take them in get them spayed neutered um some have been on transport uh to Colorado to get adopted some has been at pet since but we still have a great deal here from Ida and now we're doing it again with Francine but hopefully we won't have the same outcome as Ida how many do you have left here we have approximately 65 cats and kittens that we were fostering and two uh dogs at the time at the current time and so you have small carriers that if the water comes up high right here in Golden Meadow you're going to move all of them and carriers up to the attic yes we're are we are right here by the Levy even though uh um the South leuch Levy district has one of the strongest levies there are and they're very proud of their work and they've done a great job there's always still that uh risk of a breach and so we wanted to be fully report uh um prepared we have life jackets and axes and uh flashlights in the attic and we have cages and carriers to put the animals in so we can put them in the Attic with us but hopefully we won't have to do that so that was Janet rhus with positivity enforcement project and we talked last time we were live when we were down in Golden Meadow about how the people in um Dage how affected they are still after Ida 3 years after Ida and many of them are still not in their homes and many of them have left and that just shows you how the people down here are still so affected um almost lost my camera man the people down here um are so affected by the past hurricane and um why they they Heed These Warnings they take them seriously and how they're they're just still affected that people have had to leave for 3 years or haven't been able to rebuild that they have to leave their pets behind but the the two women who are running that positivity enforcement project that's the only business we saw open and they're there to help protect them and they said they're going to go out after the storm to get other people um pets that are that are lost so just the dedication down here and these women aren't even from here they moved here so um that's what's going on down here in in lefou again completely all the streets are completely quiet and um uh uh there are no cars out at all haven't seen any cars again except police cars who keep checking on us power still seems to be on except it was flickering in that one place but uh wind clearly picked up the rain is not as heavy um as as what people were saying earlier this is a a wind event um and that's what we're absolutely seeing here right now that looks like a levy District truck just going by but um that's what we have here right now from gallano um we'll be bringing you reports all night long as this storm comes ashore reporting live from gallano Meg Paris WWL Louisiana Meg I know that it's windy I hope you can hear me have you been seeing the intermittent bands of rain I know that you said it's not it is not raining as hard now as it was before earlier um I let's see I guess it was about um around the 3:00 time frame 2:00 time frame when we were on the air it was bands of rain coming in and not really as much wind there was some wind right now what we're feeling now is more uh strong strong bands of wind coming in and yes it's it's absolutely raining um we're being pelted with rain but it it's it's not heavy rain it's just more um rain that stings because it's it's so wind driven but uh yeah it's it's a little different in this hour than it was earlier it was more wet does that and ask um Chris does that make sense is that what they're seeing on radar and what y'all are are gathering um from what you're seeing absolutely I think it EDS and flows you know with those bands as they come in um you know they kind of whip that tail around cross the radar and I think you know kind of es and flows as you get little Brakes in those and you know Meg I think aside from the fact that you know you're still standing in these in Crazy wind gusts um what I'm noticing most is the bou behind you and the fact that you can see with every wind gust it literally pushes the water I mean it's really spectacular to see yes you can see here comes another big one now this one has much more rain on it Russell can you can you see that oh yeah uh this one has wind and a lot of rain pelting us um uh really pushing the water up from uh from down from down from the Gulf yeah wow um has it it's gone up significantly I would assume absolutely but I will tell you while the trees and all are blowing I'm not seeing power lines really swinging or um uh power poles you know looking like they're shaking or or moving it it things look solid down oh okay there goes the electricity Russell look pan over this way you see all the street lights just went out all that gas station that Domino's Pizza over there boom everything just as I was standing here talking I watched all the electricity go out yep there you have it on live television oh oh oh the lights just it all just came back on just came back on over at the gas station so that's what we kind of saw at a building we were in a little while ago flickering but that was a long flicker so I think that is a um a sign of of of what's to come obviously obviously as as Transformers and and Equipment are are blown around yeah that looks rough it looks like uh that power is not going to last for very long at least it seems tenuous at this point um Meg I hope you are able to get out of the rain for a little bit and and stay safe for us keep Russell safe please we don't I don't want to lose any photographers either yeah all good all good no I need Russell that's my driver because y'all know every photographer knows I do not like driving in the rain no no definitely not not Bridges especially over Bridges they know I'm going to be uh hooping and holling but no no no I'm I'm going to make sure I'm going to make sure uh Russell stay safe okay my body guard well they're both professionals and Russell jeury both incredible professionals with this they've been doing this for a lot of years and me we can't thank you enough for your Senor team that's right I love it the senior Squad I love it I love it I love it that's awesome we're so lucky to had a smile on her face too after all of this so it's incredible she's getting drenched let me just tell you yes really L Cummings is also getting drenched drenched she is in Homa she is near the Civic Center out there and we've seen it progressively get worse uh Lily what can you tell us about how the conditions are now 8 Devon I may have spoken to soon earlier whenever Chris was saying is the rain slapping you in the face I said oh no we're staying pretty dry under here it's all good we are very wet now things have definitely picked up since the last time we spoke to you again here in h at the Civic Center now I just want to show you how hard it is raining and what these winds look like you can see that water just sweeping across this parking lot at this point now I know Meg was just giving you all kind of a a look around gallano talking to you all about um you know what lights and things she could see flickering on and off it's really hard to say from where we're at here in h how power conditions are just because the businesses that are across the street from us were already closed up for the day so their lights were already off whenever we got here several hours ago so it's pretty um it's a little difficult to say how the weather or how the power is doing at this point but it is safe to say that the winds have significantly picked up I know we told you all that we set up the weather center out in the middle of the parking lot before things picked up um we did that safely earlier today and it is still standing up strong out there the last reading that I had gotten from the little device there that was reading a miles per hour winds um was about 42 milph um then I I actually I put it in the car because we needed to kind of get some of our gear a little bit more um we covered it in some plastic here to keep everything dry and we don't need our gear going out on us CU then we're not able to give you all the live picture that we are now and tell you all what's going on and how to keep yourself safe so we are taking our precautions here and doing what we need to do meantime as you can see things um are definitely picking up here again we have that power station that is nearby that we're keeping a close eye on I know Paul had mentioned that he was seeing some some different Transformers and things kind of um go up behind him so I'm keeping a close eye on this power substation kind of caddy corner to the Civic Center here in h that is what we're keeping a close eye on um I know you all when we last talked said were there I think it was roughly 4,000 people maybe 3,000 4,000 people that were without power and terab Bone I don't know if you all can maybe pull up an update on that to tell me exactly how many are out but it would not surprise me if that number has in increased at this point because as you can see just these trees and this wind the there is a storm coming an event like the world has never seen before the emerging event will have little to do with weather more about developing situations that were foreseen many years ago we have always warned you during severe weather and news events that affected many now channel 1 Atlanta begins a new series to warn you about what's coming soon and make sure you are prepared join us on a New Journey as according to a recent survey a lot of people believe we are living in the last days current news events show us now more than ever in history time is setting the stage for the coming storm a new series now playing only on Channel 1 Atlanta for