Louisianans brace for Hurricane Francine

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Ali Reid reported live from New Orleans on the evening of Sept. 10 as the city and the state braced for Hurricane Francine's projected landfall.

Transcript

00:00Our Allie Reed has made her way down into Louisiana and Allie, how is the region preparing

00:07ahead of landfall? We're down to about 24 hours or so.

00:13Well, Jeff, we've been here for the last couple of hours and it is evident that this city is

00:18taking this storm very seriously. I want to start with where we are live right now. We are in one of

00:23the neighborhoods here in New Orleans. It may not look very busy right now, but what you aren't

00:27seeing behind this building here is that this is the Rosenwald Recreation Center in the city.

00:33This opened at four o'clock today. This is for people in the area that are seeking shelter

00:37over the next couple of days. The city has actually worked with a number of organizations

00:42in this area to make sure that there are people that have a place to stay through at least

00:48Thursday. Now, earlier today, my photographer and I, we decided to rove about the area. We

00:53made our way to Laplace, Louisiana, about 45 minutes from where we are live right now from

00:59New Orleans. And it was there that people all throughout the area were making their way to

01:03different sandbagging locations, many of which they go, they find the sand or the dirt and they

01:10are putting them into bags themselves, bringing them back to their cars to bring back home.

01:16And you know what? As I was having conversations with people, they're nervous, right? They've

01:22dealt with these scenarios in the past. Isaac back in 2012, Ida back in 2021. And as they hear

01:30leading up to Francine, they're not messing around this time around. They say they want to be as

01:35prepared as possible. We spoke to a few of those people earlier. Take a listen to what they had to say.

01:41Just making sure we have enough sandbags for the front door, the back door, anywhere for neighbors

01:46if they need some. I think we're a little worried. We have some PTSD from Hurricane Ida,

01:51Isaac. So we know that we have to be well prepared, you know, for what's to come. We have to lean on

01:55each other to make sure that we're all OK, physically, mentally, emotionally. And, you know,

02:00this is what, you know, living in Louisiana is like. So, you know, something that we

02:05we have to get used to and something that we have to prepare for as well.

02:11Now you hear her. She is definitely in positive spirits. Many people feeling the same way.

02:16But in other conversations, we've had many people sad, nervous, visibly upset when they're

02:23talking about these storms. They know the destruction that they can cause. And they

02:28talked about a lot of those to the flooding, the severe damage that they can cause to their homes

02:33and just the mental awareness that comes around it to them being just very distraught because of

02:39the situation. Now we bring you back live in the city of New Orleans. We're going to check in with

02:44you in the next hour as we continue to follow the situation here, speak to people in the area as to

02:50what they're doing to prepare ahead of Francine. And certainly we'll continue that coverage into

02:54tomorrow for you guys, too, right here from the Big Easy. All right. We appreciate your reporting

03:00there, Ali. I know it's going to be a long road, but stay dry as best you can. And obviously,

03:06her message is very important. And again, those of you who still have electricity now,

03:09you may lose it over the next 24, 36 hours. Make sure that if you use a generator,

03:14keep it outside. Some of the recent storms that impacted Louisiana led to greater loss of life

03:21in the days and even weeks following landfall. So the fatalities in some cases didn't happen

03:27from flooding. They didn't happen from wind directly. And they didn't happen from tornadoes

03:31that will be embedded within the storm. They came from something very practical and something that

03:37you can totally avoid if you're wise about it.

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