hurricane Francine is giving us ports a battering the storm made landfall in Southern Louisiana on Wednesday packing sustained winds of up to 75 mph these pictures were shot in the port of H which was forced to shut facilities in New Orleans and elsewhere also had to close the storm has already disrupted crop shipments to the Mississippi Gulf area responsible for some 55% of us soy exports shipping companies have halted movement of produce by barge until the winds di down meanwhile Farmers around the region have harvested crops where possible to protect them from damage energy production is suffering too six refineries in eastern Louisiana were operating with minimal Staffing while they rode out the storm Exxon Mobile's facility in Baton Rouge cut output to as little as 20% of normal levels in preparation for the Hurricane's arrival in all close to 39% of oil production and half of natural gas output in the Gulf of Mexico was offline on Wednesday a total of 171 production platforms and three rigs were evacuated and that cut around 675,000 barrels per day off oil production in the region now analysts estimate energy output could be effective for about 2 weeks later in the day the US National Hurricane Center said Francine had weakened downgrading it to a tropical storm however it's still expected to raise raised the risk of flooding across surrounding states even into Southern Alabama and Northern Florida