Hurricane Barry has made landfall near Morgan City and is expected to continue it’s current northwest track that will take it just west of Lafayette, but there’s some good news for Louisiana residents this hour as it looks like the worst case scenarios for rainfall from the incoming hurricane Barry may be avoided. State Climatologist Barry Keim says a lot of rain is still on the way, but it’ll fall shy of the nearly two feet of rain anticipated yesterday.
Cut 15, 10 seconds, yesterday
But he adds the rain will likely fall all through the weekend, and even into Monday morning for parts of north Louisiana.
And some of the first heavy rain bands from Barry are expected to start impacting the Mandeville, Covington, Folsom, and Slidell after spending most of the morning dumping a lot of rain over Mobile, Alabama and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
St. Tammany Parish President Pat Brister says the parish is anticipating similar, if not worse flooding than they got in 2016 due to the already high rivers.
To the south of St. Tammany New Orleans has had it’s rainfall expectations lowered to four to eight inches of rain throughout the weekend.
The coast guard has already had to make some rescues this morning in Terrebonne Parish. Around 4:30 this morning crews retrieved 12 people who were facing rising waters.
Several shelters have opened to provide residents refuge from the effects of Barry. Department of Children and Family Services Secretary Marketa Garner Walters says you can keep track of different shelter locations by listening to your parish leaders, but the best way to get that info is dialing 2-1-1.
State run shelters are pet friendly, and the Louisiana Humane Society wants to remind people it is illegal to leave your dogs behind in a flood.