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Gulf coast residents brace for Hurricane Nate, poised to reach category 2 Gulf coast residents brace for Hurricane Nate, poised to reach category 2
(about 4 hours later)
Hurricane Nate sent residents in the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida scrambling to prepare this weekend, after the storm killed at least 21 people in Central America. Rainfall from Hurricane Nate lashed south-east Louisiana on Saturday afternoon, as the storm headed for an evening landfall along the US Gulf coast and residents in vulnerable, low-lying areas fled. At least 21 people were killed during the storm’s passage across Central America this week.
Nate was expected to be a category 2 hurricane at landfall on the central Gulf Coast. States of emergency were declared in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. “It’s coming,” Larry Bertron said as he and his wife Kimberlee prepared to leave their home in the Braithwaite community in vulnerable Plaquemines Parish. They lost one home in southern Louisiana to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Now they were preparing to leave the home they rebuilt after Hurricane Isaac in 2012.
In addition to hurricane warnings and tropical storm warnings in place from Grand Isle, Louisiana to the Alabama-Florida border and also for metropolitan New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain, a tropical storm warning was issued in the Florida panhandle from east of the Okaloosa-Walton County line to Indian Pass. A tropical storm watch extended into north-east Georgia, including the Atlanta metro area. “This will be it,” said Bertron, who complained that local officials had not done enough to improve levees. “If it floods again, this will be it. I can’t live on promises.”
In Louisiana, Governor John Bel Edwards said people in the south-eastern part of the state should hunker down by 3pm. The storm’s eye was expected to make landfall about four hours later, he said, likely bringing limited rain but powerful storm surges and strong winds. A 7pm curfew was declared for New Orleans, where fragile pumping and drainage systems could face a major test once Nate strikes. Weaknesses – including the failure of some pumps and power-generating turbines – were exposed after a deluge on 5 August flooded homes and businesses in some sections of the city.
The Louisiana national guard had mobilized 1,300 troops and positioned high-water vehicles, boats and even school buses to help with rescues from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. Edwards said he spoke to Donald Trump on Saturday morning. Hurricane conditions were expected along the northern Gulf Coast and a state of emergency was declared for Mississippi’s six southernmost counties. Residents there and in coastal Alabama were warned to take shelter or get out of the storm’s way.
“This is the worst hurricane that has impacted Mississippi since Hurricane Katrina,” Mississippi emergency management director Lee Smithson said. “Everyone needs to understand that, that this is a significantly dangerous situation.”
On Alabama’s Dauphin Island, water had begun washing over the road on the island’s low-lying west end, said mayor Jeff Collier. The storm was projected to bring storm surges from 7ft to 11ft near the Alabama-Mississippi state line. Some of the biggest impacts could be at the top of funnel-shaped Mobile Bay.
The window for preparing was “quickly closing”, Alabama emergency management agency director Brian Hastings said.
Florida governor Rick Scott warned residents of the Panhandle to prepare for Nate’s impact. The governor said residents in evacuation zones in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties should heed warnings and seek shelter from the storm. Shelters would be available to people who have nowhere else to go, he said.
“Hurricane Nate is expected to bring life-threatening storm surges, strong winds and tornados that could reach across the Panhandle,” Scott said.
The evacuations affected roughly 100,000 residents in the western Panhandle. The Pensacola International Airport announced it would close at 6pm on Saturday and remain closed on Sunday.
The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport remained open. “The airport does not close,” spokeswoman Michelle Wilcut said. “We are urging customers to check with their specific airlines to see whether their flights have been canceled because there have been some of those.”
At midday on Saturday Nate was about 105 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi river. It was still a category 1 storm but was expected to reach category 2 strength before landfall.
Waterside sections of New Orleans, outside the city’s levee system, were under an evacuation order. About 2,000 people were affected. Not everyone was complying. Gabriel Black of New Orleans’ Venetian Isles community sent his wife, a friend and three dogs to a hotel in the city. He stayed behind because an 81-year-old neighbor refused to leave.
“I know it sounds insane, but he has bad legs and he doesn’t have anybody who can get to him,” Black said.
Others nearby were staying as well. Nancy and Cleve Bell said their house was built so high off the ground that it stayed dry in the floods after Hurricane Katrina. Nancy Bell said they had a generator and plenty of supplies and would be safe.
Forecasters said Nate could dump 3in to 6in of rain with isolated totals of up to 10in. The National Hurricane Center said a hurricane warning was in effect from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to the Alabama-Florida border. A hurricane warning was also in effect for metropolitan New Orleans and nearby Lake Pontchartrain. Tropical storm warnings extended west of Grand Isle to Morgan City, Louisiana, and around Lake Maurepas and east of the Alabama-Florida border to the Okaloosa-Walton County line in the Florida Panhandle.
Hurricanes have posed challenges for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this summer. The AP reported after Hurricane Harvey that at least seven environmentally dangerous sites in and around Houston went underwater during that record-shattering storm.
In Mississippi on Saturday EPA officials were releasing 40m gallons of partially treated wastewater in advance of Nate’s arrival, in an attempt to prevent a worse leak from the closed Mississippi Phosphates plant in Pascagoula, a site with a history of damaging spills.
Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards said he spoke to President Donald Trump on Saturday morning. “He assured me that LA would have all the assistance we need,” the governor said on Twitter.
The president, who was at his golf club in Virginia before attending a fundraiser in South Carolina on Saturday night, approved an emergency declaration for a large part of Louisiana and ordered federal assistance.The president, who was at his golf club in Virginia before attending a fundraiser in South Carolina on Saturday night, approved an emergency declaration for a large part of Louisiana and ordered federal assistance.
Trump has faced sustained criticism over his response to the aftermath of hurricanes Jose and Maria in Puerto Rico – sizeable storms which followed Harvey in Texas and Irma in Miami in a costly hurricane season. He said on Twitter: “Our great team at Fema [Federal Emergency Management Administration] is prepared for Hurricane Nate. Everyone in LA, MS, AL and FL please listen to your local authorities and be safe.” Trump has faced sustained criticism over his response to the aftermath of hurricanes Jose and Maria in Puerto Rico – sizeable storms which followed Harvey in Texas and Irma in Miami in a costly hurricane season.
Florida governor Rick Scott said roughly 100,000 residents in evacuation zones should heed warnings, stick to their emergency plans and stay vigilant for updates from local officials. He said the hurricane could bring not just storm surges and strong winds but also tornadoes. He said on Twitter: “Our great team at Fema [Federal Emergency Management Administration] is prepared for Hurricane Nate. Everyone in LA, MS, AL and FL please listen to your local authorities and be safe.”
On Saturday morning, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said Nate’s top sustained winds had risen to 90mph and the core of the storm was about 180 miles south-south-east of the mouth of the Mississippi river. As of 10am CDT, Nate was accelerating to 26mph and headed north-north-west. Forecasters said hurricane-force winds extended out up to 35 miles, mainly to the east of the eye.
On Friday, Governor Edwards urged Louisiana residents to take Nate seriously, saying the storm “has the potential to do a lot of damage”. “No one should take this storm lightly,” he said. “We do want people to be very, very cautious and to not take this storm for granted.”
Forecasts indicated limited amounts of rain. That was good news for New Orleans, where the pumping system remains fragile after flash floods this summer led to revelations about personnel and equipment problems. Mayor Mitch Landrieu said on Friday 109 of the 120 pumps were functioning, which is 92% capacity.
“We are ready for whatever Nate brings our way,” Landrieu said. He enacted a 7pm Saturday curfew for the city.
Nate was forecast to dump 3in to 6in of rain with isolated totals of up to 10in. In Mississippi, Environmental Protection Agency officials were releasing 40m gallons of partially treated wastewater in advance of Nate’s arrival, in an attempt to prevent a worse leak from the closed Mississippi Phosphates plant in Pascagoula, a site with a history of damaging spills.
Hurricanes have posed challenges for the EPA this summer. The Associated Press reported after Hurricane Harvey that at least seven environmentally dangerous sites in and around Houston went underwater during that record-shattering storm.
Mississippi’s governor, Phil Bryant, declared a state of emergency in six southernmost counties. State officials, at a briefing on Friday in Gulfport, warned that Nate’s main danger would be from up to 10ft of storm surge in low-lying coastal areas, as well as from winds that could damage mobile homes.
“If you are in an area that has flooded, I would recommend you evacuate that area until the storm has ended and the water has receded for your own personal safety and for the safety of the first responders that will be responding in the event you are trapped,” Bryant said.
On Dauphin Island – a barrier island south of Mobile, Alabama – owners hauled boats out of the water. The major concern was a storm surge projected to coincide with high tide.
Chad Palmer, owner of FinAtics Inshore Fishing Charters, said Nate did not seem to be causing much concern on an island that has been battered by monster storms such as Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Katrina.
“Right now people are talking about hurricane parties,” Palmer said.