Weather

NY Times - The center of Hurricane Francine made landfall southwest of New Orleans on Wednesday, as the city’s residents deserted its flooding streets and 100 mile-per-hour winds battered the Louisiana coastline.The storm set off tornado warnings across a region whose residents have been scarred by powerful disasters, and officials urged people who had not already evacuated to stay inside for their own safety. The governor warned that some in Louisiana could be without power “for some time.”

Here’s what we’re covering:

• The forecast: The National Hurricane Center said about an hour before landfall that Francine had became a Category 2 hurricane, with winds of about 100 miles per hour. The storm’s sudden intensification had not been expected by forecasters earlier in the day. It is likely to weaken quickly now that its center is on shore.

• New Orleans: The storm appeared on track to take Francine’s center west of the city, possibly sparing it from the worst winds but putting the region’s largest population center on the side where the heaviest rain will fall. Winds were picking up in the city in the afternoon, and transit service was halted.

• Governor’s test: President Biden approved a federal emergency declaration for Louisiana to unlock more government assistance, after a request from Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican. The storm will be an early test of the new governor, who called climate change — which is making hurricanes more intense — a “hoax” in 2018.

• Early impacts: Officials in several parishes, the state’s equivalent of counties, closed schools and opened emergency shelters. The airport in New Orleans closed for flights on Wednesday afternoon, and some Thursday flights were already being canceled.

• Neighboring states: Residents in Mississippi, some still with vivid memories of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation there, also were bracing for the storm’s impact, and forecasters said tornadoes could also appear Wednesday night in parts of southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. The storm spared Houston, already hit by one hurricane this year.