Gulf Coast residents are cleaning up the mess left by Francine, which struck Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane. The storm now heads far inland.
In Alabama, local news outlets are reporting power outages and damages across Central Alabama, including in Jefferson County, Tuscaloosa County and Hale County. As of midnight on Friday, more than 6,000 customers were without power in the state, according to PowerOutage.us.
The storm, which drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters, drenched a large swath of the South, including parts of Arkansas and Florida. Flash flooding threatened cities as far away as Atlanta, Jackson, Mississippi, Birmingham, Alabama and Memphis, Tennessee.
The storm 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.
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.
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. More information can be found here.
