Hurricane Francine slammed into Louisiana Wednesday with potential for life-threatening flooding and storm surge as residents of the southern US state were advised to hunker down indoors.
The storm weakened as it moved over land, forecasters said, but it was still causing flooding, power outages and heavy rain and wind. A flash flood emergency was issued for the city of New Orleans.
Francine made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on a five-level scale in Terrebonne Parish on the southern edge of the state at 5pm local time (10pm GMT), according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Two hours later the storm was downgraded to Category 1 with sustained winds of 85 miles (140 kilometres) per hour and could bring up to 10 feet (three meters) of storm surge and a foot of rain in some parts of Louisiana, the NHC added.
'Life-threatening storm surge, hurricane-force winds and heavy rains continue to affect southern Louisiana,' the NHC said in a bullet at 12am GMT.
