Strong wind, rain as tropical storm makes Louisiana landfall

Associated Press
Sunday, June 7, 2020 5:21 p.m. | Sunday, June 7, 2020 5:21 p.m.

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Rudy Horvath walks out of his home, a boathouse in the West End section of New Orleans, as it takes on water a from storm surge Sunday in Lake Pontchartrain in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal.

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Rudy Horvath Jr., left, moves his bicycle from his home, a boat house in the West End section of New Orleans, as his father, Rudy Horvath Sr., right, looks on after it took on water from a rising storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal, Sunday, June 7, 2020.

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Isabelle Schneidau, left, gestures to the camera as she walks in a rising storm surge with Mont Echols, center, and L.G. Sullivan, right, after checking on their boats in the West End section of New Orleans in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal in New Orleans, Sunday, June 7, 2020.

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Destiny Patterson, left, and Jasmine Baquet, employees of the Royal House Restaurant, try to wave down customers in the largely deserted French Quarter of New Orleans in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal Sunday, June 7, 2020.

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Rudy Horvath Jr. moves his bicycle from his home, a boat house in the West End section of New Orleans, after it took on water from a rising storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal, Sunday, June 7, 2020.

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Charles Marsala, who lives in the Orleans Marina in the West End section of New Orleans, films a rising storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain, in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal Sunday, June 7, 2020.

A wave crashes as a man stands on a jetty near Orleans Harbor in Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Sunday, June 7, 2020, as Tropical Storm Cristobal approaches the Louisiana Coast.

NEW ORLEANS — Tropical Storm Cristobal made landfall Sunday on the Louisiana coast, packing 50 mph wind and spinning dangerous weather as far east as northern Florida, where it spawned a tornado that uprooted trees and downed power lines.

The lopsided storm moved ashore between the mouth of the Mississippi River and the barrier island resort community of Grand Isle, which had been evacuated a day earlier.

Forecasters said the storm could dump as much as 12 inches of rain in some areas. In New Orleans, the question was how much rain would fall and whether there would be enough breaks in the bands of heavy weather for the city’s aging pumping system to keep the streets free of flood waters.

Here are the 4 PM CDT June 7 key messages for Tropical Storm Cristobal. Hazardous weather conditions will continue to spread inland across portions of the northern Gulf Coast through tonight. Get more info from your local weather office at https://t.co/SiZo8ohZMN pic.twitter.com/c81CElBW7r

— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) June 7, 2020

Residents of waterside communities outside the New Orleans levee system — bounded by lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne — were urged to evacuate Sunday afternoon because of the threat of an expected storm surge.

Rising water on Lake Pontchartrain pushed about two feet of water into the first floor of Rudy Horvath’s residence — a boathouse that sits on pilings over the brackish lake. Horvath said he and his family have lived there a year and have learned to take the occasional flood in stride. They’ve put tables on the lower floor where they can stack belongings above the high water.

Tropical Storm Cristobal will be making landfall shortly in Louisiana. The Gulf Coast east of the storm is being battered with tropical storm force winds, driving rains and coastal flooding. Meanwhile, other than a few scattered showers, we should be just fine here in SE Texas. pic.twitter.com/5hivTqEDzF

— KFDM & KBTV (@setxweatherteam) June 7, 2020

“We thought it would be pretty cool to live out here, and it has been,” Horvath said. “The sunsets are great.”

Elsewhere, water covered the only road to Grand Isle and in low-lying parts of Plaquemines Parish at the state’s southeastern tip. “You can’t go down there by car,” shrimper Acy Cooper said Sunday of one marina in the area. “You have to go by boat.”

Though Cristobal was well below hurricane strength at landfall, forecasters warned that the storm would affect a wide area stretching roughly 180 miles.

Wild waterspout video from Gulf Shores this morning...video from Carlee Nobles Wright #alwx #CRISTOBAL pic.twitter.com/9ycfPeP3dU

— Josh Johnson (@JoshWeather) June 7, 2020

Sen. John Kennedy said in a news release that President Donald Trump agreed to issue an emergency declaration for Louisiana in recent hours. Gov. John Bel Edwards had issued a state emergency declaration Thursday.

In Florida, a tornado — the second in two days in the state as the storm approached — touched down about 3:35 p.m. south of Lake City near Interstate 75, said meteorologist Kirsten Chaney in the weather service’s Jacksonville office. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The storm splintered and uprooted trees and downed power lines.

Rain fell intermittently in New Orleans famed French Quarter on Sunday afternoon, but the streets were nearly deserted, with many businesses already boarded up due to the coronavirus.

Daniel Priestman said he didn’t see people frantically stocking up as in previous storms. He said people may be “overwhelmed” by the coronavirus and recent police violence and protests.

They seemed “resigned to whatever happens - happens,” he said.

At one New Orleans intersection, a handmade “Black Lives Matter” sign, wired to a lampost, rattled in a stiff wind as the crew of a massive vacuum truck worked to unclog a storm drain.

The Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans said the city’s aging street drainage system had limits, so residents should avoid underpasses and low-lying areas where water can pool during inevitable street flooding.

Cristobal was moving north at 7 mph (11 kph). Tropical storm warnings stretched from Intracoastal City in Louisiana to the Okaloosa-Walton County line in Florida, the National Hurricane Center said.

Forecasters said some parts of Louisiana and Mississippi were in danger of as much as a foot (30 centimeters) of rain, with storm surges of up to five feet (1.5 meters).

“It’s very efficient, very tropical rainfall,” National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said in a Facebook video. “It rains a whole bunch real quick.”

Much of Grand Isle wasn’t passable, Jefferson Parish Councilman Ricky Templet told The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate.

The Louisiana National Guard had dozens of high-water vehicles and rescue boats ready to dispatch across south Louisiana. Three teams of engineers also were available to help assess potential infrastructure failures, a Guard statement said.

In Biloxi, Mississippi, a pier was almost submerged Sunday morning. Squalls with tropical-force winds had reached the mouth of the Mississippi River and conditions deteriorated even before Cristobal’s Louisiana landfall, the hurricane center in Miami said.

4pm update has #Cristobal just off the Louisiana coast. Tropical Storm force winds and heavy rainfall are hammering the region. pic.twitter.com/aoAOeKaEDB

— John Dawson (@JohnDawsonFox26) June 7, 2020

Jefferson Parish, a suburb of New Orleans, called for voluntary evacuations Saturday of Jean Lafitte, Lower Lafitte, Crown Point and Barataria because of the threat of storm surge, high tides and heavy rain. Residents were urged to move vehicles, boats and campers to higher ground.

A similar order was issued for several Plaquemines Parish communities. The parish’s president, Kirk Lepine, said the order was issued as a precaution.