MIAMI — Tropical Storm Francine formed off the coast of Mexico and was forecast to bring up to a foot (30 centimeters) of rain to the Texas coast before making landfall in Louisiana as a hurricane on Wednesday night.
“We’re going to have a very dangerous situation developing by the time we get into Wednesday for portions of the north-central Gulf Coast, primarily along the coast of Louisiana, where we’re going to see the potential for life threatening storm surge inundation and hurricane force winds,” said Michael Brennan, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Francine is targeting a stretch of coastline that has yet to fully recover since , Louisiana, four years ago.
The hurricane center stated Francine is located approximately 245 miles (395 kilometers) southeast of the mouth of the Rio Grande, and roughly 480 miles (770 kilometers) south-southeast of Cameron, Louisiana. Francine’s top wind speeds Monday morning were around 50 miles per hour (85 kilometers per hour). A tropical storm is characterized by sustained winds between 39 mph and 73 mph (62 kph and 117 kph).
Francine is anticipated to be a hurricane as it approaches the northwestern Gulf Coast on Wednesday, pushing a storm surge of up to 10 feet (3 meters), forecasters said.
“Francine is expected to bring heavy rainfall and the risk of considerable flash flooding along the coast of far northeast Mexico, portions of the southernmost Texas coast, the Upper Texas Coast, southern Louisiana, and southern Mississippi into Thursday morning. A risk of flash and urban flooding exists across portions of the Mid-South from Wednesday into Friday morning,” the hurricane center warned.