Our live coverage of Tropical Storm Barry has ended. Scroll through the posts below to see how it unfolded.
Joyce Webber, 64, has been sleeping on a cot, surrounded by her neighbors at a shelter in Baldwin, Louisiana. She lives in a trailer surrounded by trees and she didn’t feel it was safe to stay there.
Webber said her son, who stayed behind in the trailer, told her a tree fell onto their trailer but didn’t cause major damage.
Because of Hurricane Katrina, Webber said, she prefers to stay in shelters throughout major storms.
Webber is among the more than 300 people who arrived to shelters in Louisiana as Tropical Storm Barry approached landfall.
Barry made landfall this afternoon in Louisiana as a Category 1 hurricane, before being downgraded into a tropical storm. The system is now crawling north-northwest at 7 mph, brining extended downfalls that could prompt heavy flooding to the area.
Here’s what you need to know about the storm:
While the center of Barry made landfall this afternoon, much of the storm has yet to come on shore.
That means Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states should still brace for rain and possible flooding, CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers said.
Here’s how he put it:
Parts of Louisiana and Mississippi could see more than 20 inches of rain through Thursday, according to the latest forecast.
Watch more from Myers:
The National Hurricane Center just released its latest forecast for Tropical Storm Barry.
The storm — which has maximum sustained winds of 65 mph — is about 20 miles Southwest of Lafayette, Louisiana. Much of costal Louisiana is still under a tropical storm warning (Parts of the coast had been under a hurricane warning earlier today).
Here’s a look at Barry’s predicted path:
At least 118,876 customers are without power across the state of Louisiana as of 5 p.m. ET.
Entergy Louisiana is reporting 74,229 customers without power and Cleco is reporting 44,647.
At least 330 households are in the mandatory evacuation zone in Terrebonne Parish, according to Terrebonne Parish public information officer Mart Black.
Black said it is unclear how many residents are in that zone or if any have evacuated at this time.
The parish is expecting a storm surge of 4 to 6 feet in certain areas, Black said.
Barry made landfall in Louisiana earlier this afternoon. It’s currently moving northwest at 6 mph.
According to the latest forecasts, the storm is expected to reach the Shreveport area by Sunday afternoon or evening.
The United States Coast Guard remains “quite concerned” about Tropical Storm Barry despite the fact that the weather event was downgraded from a hurricane.
The Coast Guard has been preparing for Barry and has plenty of resources and staffing ready to go as the storm passes through the Gulf Coast states.
Thomas said the Coast Guard learned and implemented lessons from Hurricane Harvey, where they were not prepared nor planned for dealing with 60 inches of rain in Houston. The federal agency updated operational methods to better “track who’s calling for help, where they’re calling for help from, which units are closest, how we can dispatch them so we have a better common operational picture,” Thomas said.
Alexander Garcia took video of damage to his neighbor’s house in Morgan City, Louisiana. His footage showed debris from their house blowing thrown through the air, and the inside of the home after its roof had been blown off.
He told CNN that his neighbors were not home at the time.
Watch the footage:
A mandatory evacuation notice for parts of Terrebonne Parish has been issued effective immediately by Parish President Gordon Drove.
The order is for all areas along Highway 315 and Brady Road south of Falgout Canal. The evacuation notice is in response to the overtopping of the Lower Dularge East Levee.
At least 101,777 customers are without power in the state of Louisiana as of 3 p.m. ET Saturday.
Entergy Louisiana is reporting 76,550 customers without power while Cleco Power reports 25,227.
Terrabonne, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, Jefferson, and Lafourche Parishes appear to be heavily impacted on the Entergy Louisiana outage map, with over 5000 customers out in each Parish.
Three Waffle House restaurants in Barry’s path are operating on generator power, according to Pat Warner, the company’s director of PR and External Affairs.
The Waffle House restaurants are located in Morgan City, Gray and just outside Kenner, he said.
Why we’re watching Waffle Houses: The breakfast chain’s operations play a role in how the Federal Emergency Management Agency determines a storm’s severity — seriously.
FEMA coined the term “Waffle House Index” to measure the effect of a natural disaster on an area. If a Waffle House shuts down or limits its menu after such hazards, federal officials conclude the community took a major hit.
“The Waffle House test just doesn’t tell us how quickly a business might rebound — it also tells how the larger community is faring,” FEMA said in a 2011 blog post when Craig Fugate was administrator.
“The sooner restaurants, grocery and corner stores, or banks can re-open, the sooner local economies will start generating revenue again — signaling a strong recovery for that community.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this post state that the Waffle Houses were closed. They are operating on generator power.
At least 315 people were in shelters in Louisiana last night ahead of Hurricane Barry, according to Marketa Garner-Walters, the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services.
Garner-Walters said there are 28 shelters open across the state. If you’re looking for shelter information, call 211 or Text “LASHELTER” to 898211.
If it seems like Hurricane Barry came early in the season, it’s because it did.
Barry — the first hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season — strengthened into a Category 1 storm today, July 13, shortly before it made landfall.
The average date for the first hurricane to form in the Atlantic basin is August 10th. That means we are almost a full month ahead of schedule.
Note: While Barry is the first hurricane of the 2019 season, it’s not the first tropical storm. Tropical Storm Andrea formed in the Atlantic in May — 11 days before the official season even began.
Barry just made landfall in Louisiana. While it hit as a Category 1 hurricane, it was downgraded to a tropical storm soon after.
Here are a few stat
Here’s what Barry’s landfall means for the record books:
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said that while a levee in Myrtle Grove, Louisiana, has experienced some overtopping, it is not a Mississippi River levee.
Edwards said this overtopping was expected, and stressed that no Mississippi River levees so far have been overtopped.
“No Mississippi River levee has been overtopped, and not a single levee in the state of Louisiana — as of right now — has failed or breached,” he said.
Barry made landfall in Louisiana near Intracoastal City and weakened to a tropical storm with 70 mph winds, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Barry was a hurricane when it made landfall — but it immediately weakened to a tropical storm.
The storm will continue to push inland, currently moving to the northwest at 6 mph.
Barry strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane Saturday morning. The center of the storm located 40 mph south of Lafayette, Louisiana.
The storm is expected to make landfall soon. Here’s how the storm has already affected the Gulf Coast:
Kevin Dolliole, the director of aviation at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, said that while the airport is open today, all airline flight departures have been cancelled.
The airlines anticipate resuming operations tomorrow; when and how much will vary from carrier to carrier, he said.
So far, there’s no issues with airport terminal or infrastructure.
