Thousands flee as Tropical Storm Barry menaces New Orleans, Louisiana coast
- Winds are expected to reach hurricane strength late Friday or early Saturday, as storm brings heavy rains and fear of ‘life-threatening floods’
- Troops and rescue crews are stationed around state, with helicopters on standby and emergency supplies ready for distribution
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Evacuations ramped up on Friday across coastal Louisiana as the southern US state – including its main city New Orleans – braced for a potentially disastrous deluge from Tropical Storm Barry, which threatens to strengthen into a hurricane.
The large storm in the Gulf of Mexico chugged towards land, bringing heavy rains, a storm surge and flooding that pose a threat reminiscent of 2005’s deadly Hurricane Katrina.
Thousands packed up and left their homes as floods hit low-lying areas like Plaquemines Parish, where road closures left some communities isolated as they braced themselves for Barry’s arrival.
By mid-day Friday, the storm was packing winds of 100km/h (65mph), just shy of hurricane strength. It was expected to reach hurricane strength late Friday or early Saturday as it closed in on the coast, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.
“There are three ways that Louisiana can flood: storm surge, high rivers and rain,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said. “We’re going to have all three.”
The storm’s rains are expected to pose a severe test of New Orleans’ improved post-Katrina flood defences. Edwards said the city was well prepared to withstand the storm, and the levees protecting it were not expected to be overtopped.
“But this is going to be a very, very significant rain event across most of Louisiana,” he told CNN. “This is going to impact just a huge swathe of our state.”
National Guard troops and rescue crews were stationed around the state with boats and high-water vehicles. Helicopters were also on standby, and supplies including drinking water and blankets were ready for distribution.
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In Plaquemines, dozens took shelter in the Bell Chase auditorium, while others headed inland to stay with friends or relatives and avoid what the NHC called “life-threatening flooding” to coastal and river areas.
Donald Brown, operations manager for Plaquemines Medical Centre, said most people had evacuated, but added that dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people were ignoring evacuation orders and hunkering down in “swamp camps” in the bayou, accessible only by boat.
“They say it’s going to get rough,” said Brown, 58, who survived Katrina and was staying behind to look after the medical centre.
“We’ve stayed for some pretty strong storms and we shouldn’t have,” said Keith Delahoussaye, a 60-year-old mechanic, at his trailer home in Port Sulphur. But he was keeping a close eye on the level of the Mississippi River nearby. “If we see the water rising here, we’ll leave,” he said.
US President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency on Thursday and implored residents to prepare their homes and heed the directions of officials.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it would temporarily halt immigration enforcement activity in areas subject to the state of emergency.
It said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, which is to begin sweeping operations nationwide to detain and deport migrants in the country illegally, would not target migrant families evacuating during the storm.
Louisiana is facing an extraordinarily dangerous confluence of conditions, experts said.
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The level of the Mississippi River, already swollen from historic rains and flooding upstream in the Midwest, was at 4.9 metres (16 feet) in New Orleans late Thursday, 30cm shy of flood stage. With storm surges of 60 to 120cm projected, the river could breach the six-metre-high (20-foot-high) levee system protecting the city of 400,000.
The NHC upped its projections of Barry’s rainfall totals to 25 to 50cm (10 to 20 inches), with up to 64cm in some areas.
“Flash flooding and river flooding will become increasingly likely, some of which may be significant,” it said.
Plaquemines officials said they were not anticipating breaches, although in Venice floodwaters have already closed the highway.
Residents and business owners in New Orleans were laying down sand bags and boarding up windows. City officials have set up shelters for residents.
In 2005, Katrina – the costliest and deadliest hurricane in US history – submerged about 80 per cent of New Orleans, causing some 1,800 deaths and more than US$150 billion in damage.
In its aftermath, the Army Corps of Engineers began a multibillion-dollar hurricane-protection system that is not complete. The work included repairs and improvements to some 560km (350 miles) of levees and more than 70 pump stations that are used to remove floodwaters.
If the storm becomes a hurricane, it would be the first of the Atlantic season, which runs from June to November.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
