Francine weakens and moves inland after lashing Louisiana

MORGAN CITY, La. (AP) — Francine weakened Thursday after striking Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of utility customers, sent storm surge rushing into coastal communities and raised flooding fears in New Orleans and beyond.

As the system moved inland, crews began clearing roads and restoring electricity while neighborhoods and businesses started cleaning up the mess. There were no reports of deaths or injuries, Gov. Jeff Landry said.

“The human spirit is defined by its resiliency, and resiliency is what defines Louisiana,” Landry told a news conference. “Certainly there are times and situations that try us, but it is also when we in this state are at our very best.”

At the storm’s peak, 450,000 people in Louisiana were without power, based on numbers reported by the Public Service Commission. Many of the outages were linked to falling debris, not structural damage. At one point, around 500 people were in emergency shelters, officials said.

“The amount of money invested in resilience has really made a difference, from the power outages to the number of homes saved,” said Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who attended the governor’s news conference.

The storm drenched the northern Gulf Coast. Up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain was possible in parts of Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Georgia, with up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) possible in parts of Alabama and Florida. Flash flooding threatened cities as far away as Jackson, Mississippi; Birmingham, Alabama and Memphis, Tennessee.

Though far from the Gulf, a jury in Memphis was sent home early in the trial of three former police officers charged with civil rights violations in the beating death of Tyre Nichols. U.S. District Judge Mark Norris blamed the remnants of Francine, saying he wanted to spare jurors from worrying about the weather and getting distracted.

By late Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service declared Francine a remnant low-pressure system or “post-tropical cyclone.” The center of the system was about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Memphis.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Ileana formed Thursday in the eastern Pacific Ocean, prompting officials in Mexico to post a tropical storm warning for the Baja California peninsula, according to the hurricane center. The storm was about 240 miles (385 kilometers) southeast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with maximum winds of 40 mph (65 kph) and moving northwest at 9 mph (15 kph).

Francine slammed the Louisiana coast Wednesday evening with 100 mph (155 kph) winds in coastal Terrebonne Parish, battering a fragile coastal region that has not fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes in 2020 and 2021. The system then rushed toward New Orleans, lashing the city with torrential rain. The city awoke to widespread power outages and debris-covered streets. Home generators roared outside some houses.

Rushing water nearly enveloped a pickup truck in a New Orleans underpass, trapping the driver inside. A 39-year-old emergency room nurse who lived nearby grabbed a hammer, waded into the waist-high water, smashed the window and pulled the driver out. It was all captured on live television by a WDSU news crew.

“It’s just second nature I guess, being a nurse, you just go in and get it done, right?” Miles Crawford told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday. “I just had to get to get him out of there.”

He said the water was up to the driver’s head and rising. Crawford told the man to move to the back of the truck’s cab, which gave him more room, and since the front end of the pickup was angled down, into deeper water.

“I wasn’t really questioning whether I should do it — it was just who is going to get it done,” he recalled, adding that he never caught the man’s name.

Elsewhere, news footage from coastal communities after Francine’s landfall showed waves from lakes, rivers and Gulf waters thrashing seawalls. Water poured into city streets in blinding downpours. Trees bent in the wind.

Along Bayou Pointe-au-Chien, on southern Louisiana’s coast, homes were spared the worst of the storm surge by a robust levee system and floodgate. Even so, white cap waves formed in the bayou and smashed against the home where Debra Matherne sheltered with her father.

“The house started rocking and I’m like ‘Oh, I hope it stays on the pilings,’ said Matherne, 66. The damage to their home was nothing major, just blown out screens, “but it sure to hell was scary.”

Elsewhere, sheriff’s deputies helped evacuate dozens of people, including many small children, who were trapped by rising water Wednesday evening in Thibodaux. Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said deputies also rescued residents in the Kraemer community.

As the sun rose in Morgan City, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from where Francine made landfall, residents gathered tree branches that were strewn across their yards, where water rose almost to their doors. Pamela Miller, 54, stepped outside to survey the damage after a large tree fell on the roof of her home.

“It was a really loud noise, a jolt,” she said. “Luckily it did not go through the roof.”

The sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Francine drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters.

In the Louisiana town of Ashland, 73-year-old Wilson Garner stood on the steps of a FEMA trailer he has lived in since his previous home was destroyed by Hurricane Ida in 2021. He has been trying for years to get enough money to fix up the old place. The $1,000 monthly rental stipend from FEMA is not enough for him to move, he said.

“You find a place for $1,000, man, you’re very lucky,” he said. “We just haven’t had no success. Where am I going to go? I don’t know.”

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Cline reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Associated Press writers Kevin McGill in New Orleans, Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, Jeff Martin in Atlanta, and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this story.