Louisiana

Francine path updates: Where will forecasted hurricane make landfall?

Published

2 months ago

September 10, 2024

Press Room

Francine path updates: Where will forecasted hurricane make landfall?

Editor’s note: Read Tuesday’s updates on Francine as the storm takes aim at the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Tropical Storm Francine, which formed Monday, has taken a slow, meandering path across the Gulf. It’s now gathering speed and taking direct aim on the Louisiana Gulf Coast, with landfall expected there sometime on Wednesday.

“Francine is anticipated to be just offshore of the coasts of northeastern Mexico and southern Texas through this afternoon, and then move across the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, making landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday,” the National Hurricane Center said in a midday Tuesday forecast. Towns closest to the location of expected landfall include Morgan City and Houma, Louisiana.

New Orleans should brace for major flooding rain, winds of up to 73 mph, the possibility of tornadoes and 3-5 feet of storm surge, the local weather service office said Tuesday. The city, infamously ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was just to the east of Francine’s worst impacts, according to Tuesday forecasts.

After landfall, the storm’s center is expected to move into Mississippi “on Wednesday night or Thursday.”

As the system approaches the central Gulf Coast and eventually pushes inland across Louisiana, an increased threat of life-threatening storm surge, hurricane-force winds, and considerable flash flooding is anticipated, the hurricane center warned.

As Francine neared, authorities called for a mandatory evacuation of residents in three coastal communities, schools were shut and officials distributed sandbags.

Tropical Storm Francine tracker

What’s causing Francine to move north?

Other weather systems are shoving Francine around: An approaching trough of low pressure over Texas should cause Francine to turn northeast at a faster forward speed during the next 24-36 hours, “and this motion should bring the center to the Louisiana coast sometime Wednesday afternoon or evening,” the hurricane center said.

“After landfall, Francine should turn more northward between the trough and a mid-level ridge over the eastern United States.”

Louisiana no stranger to storms

The most recent hurricane to hit Louisiana was Ida in 2021, AccuWeather said. “Between 2019 and 2021, Louisiana had eight tropical storms or hurricane landfalls, including major hurricanes Laura and Ida,” noted Alyssa Glenny, AccuWeather meteorologist, in an online report.

Heavy rain and inland flood threat

Along with the threat from strong winds and storm surge comes the threat for heavy rainfall:

“Francine is expected to bring heavy rainfall and the risk of considerable flash and urban flooding for far northeast Mexico into the far southern coast of Texas today and across much of Louisiana and Mississippi through Thursday,” the hurricane center said. Flash and urban flooding is probable across the Mid-South Wednesday night into Friday morning.

Rainfall amounts of 4 to 8 inches, with local amounts up to 12 inches are forecast across much of central and eastern Louisiana and Mississippi through Thursday night, the National Weather Service said.

Francine spaghetti models

Spaghetti model illustrations include an array of forecast tools and models, and not all are created equal. The Hurricane Center uses only the top four or five highest performing models to help make its forecasts.

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Louisiana

South Alabama holds on for 24-22 win over first-place Louisiana

Published

4 hours ago

November 17, 2024

Press Room

South Alabama holds on for 24-22 win over first-place Louisiana

South Alabama didn’t let this one get away, and is still alive for a Sun Belt championship.

The Jaguars held on for a 24-22 victory over first-place Louisiana on Saturday night at Cajun Field in Lafayette, winning despite failing to score in the second half. South Alabama (5-5, 4-2 Sun Belt Conference) still has a chance to earn a spot in the Sun Belt championship game if it wins its final two contests and gets some help.

“The first half was really beautiful. In the second half we made our mistakes,” South Alabama coach Major Applewhite said. “We had a special teams error that resulted in a field goal. We had a bust on the defensive call that ended up in a big touchdown, bringing it within eight, but we also did some good things. After the issue on the punt, we held them to a field goal. We did move the ball a little bit, obviously we need to sustain drives better in the second half; put points up on the board, but when it mattered, we got some first downs and took some time off the clock.”

On Saturday, South Alabama built a 24-3 halftime lead before Louisiana stormed back to get within two points with 1:16 to play. However, Jaguars nose tackle Wy’Kevious Thomas stopped Ragin’ Cajuns quarterback Chandler Fields short of the goal line on a 2-point attempt to preserve the lead.

Louisiana (8-2, 5-1) then tried an onside kick, but the ball went out of bounds and to South Alabama. The Jaguars then knelt on the ball three times for the victory, its second straight thriller in Lafayette after a 20-17 win on a last-second field goal in 2022.

For most of the night Saturday, it looked like no such dramatics would be necessary. The Jaguars — who blew fourth-quarter leads in losses to Arkansas State and Georgia Southern this season — scored touchdowns the first three times they had the ball on two short runs by Lopez and a third by Kentrel Bullock, then got Laith Marjan’s 35-yard field goal on the final play of the half to lead by 21 at the break.

“We were just executing the offense,” Lopez said. “We weren’t trying to do too much. If the hole was open, we took it. We game-planned for two weeks and we just executed it.”

Louisiana rallied, however, even after starting quarterback Ben Wooldridge was knocked from the game with a shoulder injury early in the third quarter. The Ragin’ Cajuns got a pair of short Kenneth Almandares field goals to cut the lead to 24-9 early in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, South Alabama could not muster much of anything offensively in the second half. After a punt with 9:30 remaining, Louisiana scored quickly on Fields’ 66-yard touchdown pass to Dre’Lyn Washington, which made it 24-16 at the 8:28 mark.

South Alabama tried to run out the clock, but Lopez was intercepted on a deep ball by safety Kody Jackson with 5:30 to play. Louisiana then drove 85 yards for a touchdown, taking advantage of an offsides penalty and a pass interference flag before Fields powered in from the 2 with 76 seconds remaining to pull the Ragin’ Cajuns within the fateful two points.

South Alabama can clinch bowl-eligibility for the third straight year by beating last-place Southern Miss next Saturday. To win the West, the Jaguars would need to beat both the Golden Eagles and Texas State on Nov. 29 and have Arkansas State (which holds the head-to-head tiebreaker) and Louisiana lose at least once each in their final two games.

Fields finished 14-for-17 for 185 yards and a touchdown for the Ragin’ Cajuns, in addition to the rushing score. Louisiana outgained South Alabama 413 yards to 353, 253-58 in the second half.

Lopez finished 24-for-34 for 285 yards passing with one interception, and also rushed for 34 yards and a score. Jamaal Pritchett caught 11 passes for 170 yards, but the Jaguars ran for just 68 yards as a team.

The South Alabama defense had its share of big moments before Thomas’ stop on the 2-point attempt, including a fourth-down stand on Louisiana’s opening possession, an interception by Jaden Voisin and a fumble recovery by Wesley Miller. Voisin’s interception was his fourth of the season and 10th of his career, a South Alabama program record.

South Alabama also allowed just one touchdown on four trips into the red zone by Louisiana, with three of those possessions ending on Almandares field goals of 35, 25 and 22 yards. The Ragin’ Cajuns were 4-for-13 on third down, though they did go 3-for-4 on fourth.

Kickoff for South Alabama at Southern Miss is set for 2 p.m. next Saturday, with live streaming on ESPN+.

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Louisiana

Duck hunters hope cold fronts will save first split

Published

12 hours ago

November 16, 2024

Press Room

Duck hunters hope cold fronts will save first split

Last week’s midweek cold front, and another even colder front predicted this week, could save Louisiana’s first split of the 60-day duck season.

With the West Zone — it covers our state’s entire coast — entering its second full week and East Zone’s wild waterfowlers getting their first shots this weekend, two cold fronts are a blessing.

A double stroke of good luck is both fronts brought and are predicted to bring much-needed rain, maybe too much in some places, but water to quench what was left of that October drought.

From the first West Zone reports, it appears only a handful of isolated spots held enough migrating birds to give hunters enough opportunity after that Nov. 9 opening day.

The first day’s take was good enough for most coastal hunters, but the second and third days left them wanting. Only a few, and somewhat small, locations in Grand Chenier and Little Chenier in the southwestern parishes and spots on the eastern side of the Mississippi River south of Buras held enough bluewing teal, pintails and gray ducks for hunters after opening day.

The southwestern marshes had to wait for rice-field hunters to chase birds their way, which meant seeing a few birds near sunrise and more birds later in the morning for those willing to wait out the lull in the action.

The take more than verified Wildlife and Fisheries’ Waterfowl Study Group survey, an aerial counting that showed Louisiana was holding a record low number of ducks for a November survey — ever!

The 510,000 ducks spread among 11 species is, according to study leader Jason Olszak, “12.7% lower than last November’s record low of 584,000 and is 37% lower than the most recent five-year average (809,000), and 58% lower than the most recent 10-year average (1.2 million).”

The survey showed increases only in bluewing teal and pintail from 12 months ago, but did not show a count of 107,000 black-bellied whistling ducks, a species that’s increased its numbers dramatically during the past four years in our state.

All it not lost. Midwest states like Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri have temperatures dipping below freezing for the first time this year, and that’s usually enough to chase south the last remaining teal, grays, pintail, shovelers and ringneck ducks to increase the number of birds pushing south into Louisiana.

One surprising number in November’s survey was the number of ducks in the Little River Basin, a place identified as Catahoula Lake in past years. The 119,000 ducks seen in the basin is big uptick from past years and gives East Zone hunters a leg up on what usually is a sparse first split.

A reminder: The East Zone’s first split runs through Dec. 1. West Zone hunters have a Dec. 8 first-split final day.

Red snapper

Charterboat operations with federal for-hire permits will get another chance to take red snapper this year.

Federal fisheries folks announced charters in all five Gulf States will open a second season Monday and remain open through Dec. 31.

That’s because during the federal charters’ special 88-day season (it closed Aug. 28) the feds estimated landings to be 2,193,710 pounds in an annual allotment of 3,076,322 pounds whole weight. That leaves 882,612 pounds on the table, enough federal fisheries managers say can extend a season through the end of the year.

Private recreational anglers and charterboats under state permits continue to have a closed or limited seasons under each of the five state’s allowed red snapper frameworks.

Louisiana private and state-chartered fishermen continue to have a closed season on the take of red snapper.

Closures

Recent heavy rains forced Wildlife and Fisheries to close the deer season in the Maurepas Swamp Wildlife Management Area, and the closure of Blount Road on the Richard Yancey WMA.

Both are popular deer and small-game hunting areas. Maurepas Swamp (112,615 acres) is between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and takes in parts of Ascension, Livingston, St. John the Baptist and St. James parishes.

Richard Yancey is located 35 miles south of Ferriday. The agency said Blount Road, a major access route, will have to be inspected and repaired before it can be reopened to hunters.

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Louisiana

Court narrows ruling barring display of Ten Commandments in Louisiana schools

Published

19 hours ago

November 16, 2024

Press Room

Court narrows ruling barring display of Ten Commandments in Louisiana schools

A federal appeals court in New Orleans on Friday temporarily limited the scope of a ruling that Louisiana’s law requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments in all classrooms next year is unconstitutional.

US district judge John deGravelles’ ruling that the law is unconstitutional remains in effect under the order from the fifth US circuit court of appeals. However, the appellate court temporarily blocked a part of the ruling that requires state education officials to notify public schools statewide that the law has been struck down.

State attorneys said in an emergency stay motion filed on Wednesday that deGravelles’ finding that the commandments posting requirement is unconstitutional only affects five local school systems that are defendants in the case. They said deGravelles overstepped his authority when he ordered that schools in all 72 districts tbe notified of his finding. They asked that the notification requirement be paused immediately while they appeal all of deGravelles’ order. That broader appeal was filed later on Friday night.

Friday’s fifth circuit order was a temporary “administrative stay” granted in response to the state’s emergency request. The order may be altered or lifted as the appeal progresses. Judges Jerry Smith, nominated to the court by Ronald Reagan, and Kurt Engelhardt, nominated by Donald Trump, voted to grant the stay in a one-sentence order. A footnote said Judge James Graves, nominated by Barack Obama, would have denied the stay.

Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, celebrated the ruling in a Friday evening social media post.

“I look forward to immediately working with all of our school boards who are not involved in this lawsuit to implement the law soon,” she wrote.

The law specifies a version of the Ten Commandments must be posted in all Louisiana classrooms at public K-12 schools and universities by 1 January. It was passed by the Republican-dominated state legislature this year and signed by the Republican governor, Jeff Landry, in June.

DeGravelles ruled on Tuesday that the law was “overtly religious” and “unconstitutional on its face”. He said state superintendent of education, Cade Brumley, and the state education board – both of them defendants in the lawsuit – can take no steps to implement the law. And he told them to notify all school boards that it has been found unconstitutional.

Murrill, a Republican ally of Landry, said the state disagrees with the entire ruling. However, she said the notification requirement created an immediate problem because it will confuse school systems where, the state contends, the law remains in effect.

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