After a blessed lull in this year’s hurricane season, a new storm is gathering force as it sweeps across the Gulf of Mexico toward the Louisiana coastline.
Dubbed Tropical Storm Francine, forecasters anticipate that, fueled by warm waters, the fierce winds will almost certainly exceed the sustained speeds of 74mph required for hurricane status, possibly reaching as high as 100mph, by the time the storm arrives in the U.S. sometime on Wednesday afternoon.
The National Hurricane Center has issued a bulletin advising a “hurricane warning” is now in place “for the Louisiana coast east of Morgan City to Grand Isle,” with a further “tropical storm warning” in effect for parts of the coast “east of Grand Isle to the mouth of the Pearl River, including metropolitan New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain, and Lake Maurepas.”
