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    • Thousands of people without power as winds die down
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    Thousands of people without power as winds die down

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    Powerful Hurricane Francine moved inland on Thursday. Its winds have weakened to a tropical depression, but it is still a dangerous storm, bringing heavy rains to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

    Nearly half a million homes and businesses were without power Thursday morning, hours after the storm’s center slammed into the coast of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, as a Category 2 storm packed 100 mph winds. The winds subsided, but the lingering downpours turned streets into rivers as Francine raced toward New Orleans.

    By Thursday morning, Francine’s maximum sustained winds had dropped to 35 mph as the storm’s center moved over southern Mississippi. But the potential for “life-threatening” coastal storm surge remained a major concern from the sixth and strongest storm of the hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center said.

    “As the sun rises this morning, DO NOT GO OUTSIDE,” the National Weather Service office in New Orleans tweeted Thursday. “Stay where you are today! Rescue workers and emergency response professionals still need to do their jobs this morning! Don’t make their jobs harder or more dangerous!”

    Flash Flood Emergency in New Orleans: Francine pounds Louisiana

    Developments:

    ∎ A few tornadoes were possible on Thursday, mainly from the Florida Panhandle to northcentral Alabama.

    ∎ The center of Francine was forecast to move across central and northern Mississippi through Friday morning.

    ∎ The storm has already disrupted energy production and agricultural exports from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Nearly 39% of oil and nearly half of natural gas production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico was offline Wednesday, the offshore regulator said. A total of 171 production platforms and three drilling rigs were evacuated.

    Hundreds of schools were closed Thursday in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Many schools remained closed Wednesday, and some won’t reopen until next week. In New Orleans, classes for nearly 50,000 public school students were canceled for the second day Thursday — and Friday was uncertain. District officials posted a message on their schools’ websites saying they would assess the storm’s impact Thursday and determine when schools could reopen.

    Schools in East Baton Rouge were also closed Wednesday and Thursday, but to minimize disruption to learning, students were given assignments via Chromebooks or printed packets. Students were asked to complete the work “to the best of their ability.” Students who lost internet access due to the storm will be given make-up opportunities, district officials said in a message to the school community.

    “The transition to distance learning will minimize learning loss and reduce the time needed to catch up with students in school,” the memo said.

    Louis Ruffino has a heavy workload ahead of him. The owner of a hurricane recovery service in Amite City, Louisiana, expects to work 18 hours a day for the next two weeks after Francine tore through the area, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

    “We have a lot of work today, mostly tree removal and debris removal,” he told USA TODAY early Thursday morning. “We’ll be removing some drywall from areas where homes and businesses were flooded.”

    Ruffino said he’s already seen some damage from the storm. “There are a couple businesses that have had their roofs blown off,” he said. “There are several houses with trees in them, and a lot of fences that are blown down.”

    He expects Francine’s full recovery will take about four months, compared to the year and a half it took his team after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

    Despite the damage and power outages, the local community has seen worse, he said. “Although they are worried about the storm, they have been through a lot of storms.”

    “I think they thought it would work out,” he said.

    New Orleans’ French Quarter, a tourist hotspot where streets and sidewalks are often packed with revelers, was on lockdown with a heavy police presence and very few pedestrians. On Bourbon Street, Gina Kralek said she was working at the Clover Grill, replacing two coworkers who had been evacuated before the storm.

    “Normally I evacuate, but I have my three dogs with me,” Kralek said. “Not everyone wants to take me with the dogs.”

    The supermarkets were boarded up, but first the veterans of previous storms had loaded up on provisions.

    “We’re all set. We’ve got our canned goods, we’ve got our supplies,” said Steve Rodriguez, who has lived in New Orleans for more than 40 years.

    Francine is expected to bring up to 6 inches of snow to parts of Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Local amounts of up to 10 inches were possible in central and northern Alabama and over the Florida Panhandle.

    The hurricane center said the rainfall could locally cause “significant lightning strikes and flooding in urban areas.”

    The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans was experiencing power outages and other problems, and residents were urged to conserve water. Officials in nearby Jefferson Parish also urged residents to limit their water use because of the “antiquated sewer system,” according to parish president Cynthia Lee Sheng. She said the parish received numerous reports Wednesday of residents unable to flush toilets and manhole covers bubbling up.

    “The system is getting overloaded,” Sheng said at a news conference on Wednesday. “The water has nowhere else to go and it is getting clogged.”

    Parish officials advised residents to avoid activities such as dishwashing and laundry in an effort to minimize overloading the sewer system. Officials added that the parish has more than 500 lift stations with more than 1,800 pumps working to keep the system down.

    “The crews are now working diligently and investigating the sewer blockages. However, they will be removed from the streets once the wind reaches 56 km/h,” the parish said.

    Francine isn’t the only storm on the map: Meteorologists are also monitoring four other disturbances across the Atlantic Ocean, which now appear to have fully awakened from their recent slumber. That’s not surprising, given that this week is typically the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season.

    While none of the systems pose an immediate threat to land, all should be monitored for possible tropical development, the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday.

    The four systems range in location from a system just off the U.S. coast to a tropical depression far out to sea near Africa. Read more.

    Contributions: Reuters

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