As Hurricane Francine closed in on the Louisiana coast on Wednesday afternoon, northshore officials in St. Tammany Parish urged residents to hunker down and ride out the storm.
“Now is the time to stay where you are or get to a safe location,” Parish President Mike Cooper said at a press conference at the parish’s emergency operations center in Covington.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami has placed the parish under a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning. Storm surge along the lakefront may reach up to six feet. Parts of the parish may get 8-12 inches or rain. And sustained tropical-storm-force winds of 39 mph or higher are expected between about 8 pm and 2 a.m. Thursday.
“We need people to stay inside, stay home, stay safe, let the storm pass,” said Clint Ory, St. Tammany’s director of homeland security and emergency preparedness. “Once we get above sustained tropical-storm-force winds, those first responders should not be responding.”
Parish officials are preparing for possible flooding as the storm passes through.
Water pooled in a yard on the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 11 in Slidell, well before Hurricane Francine had made landfall.
As the storm surge pushes water from Lake Pontchartrain inland, the northshore’s rivers may get backed up. Add to that heavy rainfall, and inland flooding, in addition to the coastal flooding from storm surge, becomes a real possibility over the coming days.
“That surge causes coastal flooding, but it also causes the rivers to back up,” Ory said. “It’s kind of a compounding effect.”
The National Water Prediction Service currently projects that the Tchefuncte River to reach minor flood stage overnight on Thursday. The Bogue Falaya is expected to crest just below flood stage.
All sandbag locations in St. Tammany were closed Wednesday afternoon, Cooper said. Ory noted that the storm was not expected to be severe enough to justify opening emergency shelters. He also said that the nonprofits and other community and faith-based organizations, including the Northlake Homeless Coalition, had helped people find safe shelter in advance of the storm.
Meanwhile, across the parish, residents and officials took final precautions as the storm moved toward land.
Parish Council member Joe Impastato planned to drive through his district in Lacombe in a high-water vehicle on Wednesday and keep an eye out for anyone who might need assistance.
“We’re not going to let someone not have a place to go,” he said, adding that, during Katrina, they pulled the doors off of a locked school building with a firetruck to convert it into a shelter.
Tracy Zeringue, 61, a Slidell resident, was packing some goods into her Jeep on Wednesday morning. She said she planned not to evacuate, but would have to move her car if the waters rose.
“I’ve learned over the years at what point it’s time to get out,” she said.
