MIAMI – Tropical Storm Francine strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday and is expected to make landfall as a hurricane in Louisiana in the coming days, where evacuation orders have been issued in some coastal communities and residents have begun filling sandbags in preparation for widespread flooding.
Francine — the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season — is expected to reach hurricane strength soon, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Monday. The storm was already being felt in Mexico, where heavy rains caused school to be canceled.
The NHC said Francine was located about 145 miles (235 kilometers) south-southwest of the mouth of the Rio Grande River, with maximum sustained winds of about 65 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour). It was moving north-northwest at 7 mph (11 km/h).
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry urged residents “not to panic, but to be prepared” and heed evacuation warnings. Forecasters said Francine is expected to make landfall in southern Louisiana on Wednesday afternoon as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 96 to 110 mph (155 to 175 kph).
“We don’t want people to wait until the last minute to get on the road and then run out of gas,” Landry said.
Francine is headed toward an area of coastal Louisiana that has yet to fully recover since Hurricanes Laura and Delta decimated the city of Lake Charles in 2020, followed a year later by Hurricane Ida.
Storm surge from Francine along the Louisiana coast could reach as high as 10 feet (3 meters) from Cameron to Port Fourchon and into Vermilion Bay, forecasters said.
NHC Director Michael Brennan said Francine would likely make landfall somewhere between the town of Sabine Pass on the Texas-Louisiana border and Morgan City, Louisiana, about 220 miles (350 kilometers) to the east.
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Stengle reported from Dallas. Alfredo Peña in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, contributed to this report.
