Barry weakens into tropical storm after making landfall west of New Orleans, but fears of flooding remain in coastal Louisiana
- Power cuts and flooding reported along the Gulf coast, with weather experts warning residents not to be complacent
Barry, which was briefly listed as a category one hurricane, made landfall in Intracoastal City, which is located about 265km (165 miles) west of New Orleans, the National Hurricane Centre said in its latest advisory.
Barry already knocked down power lines, flooded coastal motorways and trapped some residents in their homes.
Before dawn, nearly a dozen residents were stranded on Isle de Jean Charles, a slender strip of land southwest of New Orleans that was already slowly sinking due to wetland erosion. At 4:30am, the coastguard received a distress call that several families were trapped on Island Road as water rose to the roof of their homes.
Helicopters rescued 11 people – more than a quarter of the island’s population – and two cats, said Lexie Preston, a spokesman for the coastguard. Most of the island’s residents evacuated before the storm.
“Right now, the winds are causing havoc,” Morgan City Mayor Frank Grizzaffi said after a morning tour of his city to survey the damage. Around 4am, heavy gusts of winds began to knock tree limbs and electricity poles to the ground, he said, leaving nearly a third of homes and businesses without power.
“It’s still dangerous out there, limbs all over the street,” Grizzaffi said. “And the worst is yet to come.”
Already, a Morgan City fire crew had travelled across the Atchafalaya River to rescue a woman in the neighbouring town of Berwick after a live power line fell on top of her trailer and trapped her inside.
While Barry was expected to make landfall as a weak hurricane, officials urged residents not to be complacent. Heavy rain and storm surges were likely to bring a high risk of flash floods and river flooding, the National Hurricane Centre warned. And with most of the rain bands concentrated in the southern half of the storm, the bulk of the rain would not drop until after landfall.
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“Please stay patient & vigilant,” the city of New Orleans urged residents in a morning text message. “Barry still expected to bring heavy rain.”
The National Hurricane Centre predicted that the slow-moving storm could “dangerous, life-threatening flooding” across south-central and southeast Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi.
Officials were confident levees protecting New Orleans would not break, even as water knocked down a back levee on Saturday morning in Plaquemines Parish, a fragile finger of land south of the city.
With a hurricane warning in effect for a long stretch of the Louisiana coast, about 3,000 National Guardsmen were activated across Louisiana – more than a third in the New Orleans area – poised to respond to emergencies with boats, helicopters, and high water vehicles.
Still, with about half of this historic Deep South city below sea level, residents were unsure how their complicated flood protection system of pumps, catch basins and drainage canals would hold up.
The historic neighbourhood of Treme received more than 20cm (eight inches) of rain in three hours, and water seeped into barber shops, dry cleaners and restaurants.
“They keep saying the pumps are working,” said Melvin Benoit, a chef at Willie Mae’s Scotch House who lives in Treme. “But it doesn’t seem like they’re working.”
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
