Hurricane Delta is down to 80 mile per hour winds as it pushes deeper into the state now sitting about 20 miles north of Jennings. The storm was projected to take a much sharper northeast turn than it has so far, with the system mostly moving north from its landing in Creole as a category two hurricane around 6 PM.
A full track for the storm is out and it looks like Delta made landfall just 12 miles to the east of where Laura did six weeks ago.
That’s bringing problems back into southwest Louisiana that many thought they had put behind them. Up to 15 inches of rain could accumulate in parts of the region by morning and a Flash Flood Emergency has been declared in SW LA. Residents are highly encouraged to seek higher ground.
171,000 Entergy customers are now without power and 75,000 Cleco customers have joined them. That number is expected to continue to rise. Power outages extend as far east as Baton Rouge where 40,000 customers are without power.
______________________________
Delta is expected to be out of our hair in Louisiana within the next ten hours. After the storm leaves though Governor Edwards asks you not to get in the way of first responders and repair crews that are out making sure the roads are safe and the powerlines are up. He says more people have lost their lives recently in the post-storm phase than mid-event…
More than half of those deaths were related to generator mishaps. State Fire Marshal spokesperson Ashley Rodrigue says to make sure you keep your generator at least 20 feet away from your home and don’t plug the generator directly into the home or structure, it will cause a situation of back feed and create a house fire.