Barry is expected to bring Tropical Storm conditions to the Louisiana coast by Friday, with hurricane conditions possible by Friday night or Saturday. All state resources, including helicopters, aircraft, trailers, generators and dozens of state employees, will be on standby.
On Saturday, Tropical Storm Barry was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour as it churns off the Louisiana coastline.
Barry was forecast to make landfall around 7 a.m. on Saturday morning.
But Barry overcame those challenges, and as a hurricane will bring surges of ocean water into coastal areas, threaten to overtop levees in the region, and nearly certainly bring damaging or catastrophic flooding to certain areas over the next two days.
Tropical Storm Barry's wind and rain began hitting parts of Louisiana Friday as New Orleans and coastal communities braced for a drenching from what could be the season's first hurricane.
Because of the high winds, there's a chance of tornadoes spinning off Barry. For the first time since their construction, all major floodgates on the Mississippi River are closed, he added. Still, he said he didn't expect the Mississippi River to spill over the levees despite water levels already running high from spring rains and melting snow upstream.
"Life-threatening, significant flash flooding and river flooding will become increasingly likely later today and tonight as Barry moves inland, especially across portions of south-central and southeast Louisiana into MS", the NHC said.
"The strongest Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall in the continental United States in July were the Gulf Coast Hurricane of 1916 and Hurricane Dennis of 2005", Phil Klotzbach said, a meteorologist at Colorado State University specializing in Atlantic basin seasonal hurricane forecasts.
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Lifelong New Orleans resident Terrence Williams grabbed supplies at a Costco, saying he has a few simple rules for big storms.
More than 70,000 to 100,000 customers have been left without power throughout the Terrabonne, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, Jefferson, and Lafourch parishes according to Entergy Louisiana. "We appreciate the support of the White House and our federal partners as we continue our unprecedented flood fight", the governor said in a tweet Thursday.
Based on its current track, the storm will likely cause about $800 million to $900 million in damage, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler with Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia.
"So right now, New Orleans is looking at a significant rise in water".
Some Plaquemines residents were battening down to ride out the storm, despite mandatory evacuation orders. Regardless of landfall, plenty of heavy rain will be making its way through parts of Louisiana and MS in the near term.
Intracoastal City is situated 165 miles due west of New Orleans.
The National Hurricane Center said as much as 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain could fall in parts of eastern Louisiana, including Baton Rouge, and the entire region could get as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters). And three Carnival Cruise Line ship departures scheduled for Saturday, Sunday and Monday are in limbo following the closure of the Port of Mobile in Alabama and New Orleans. The levees protecting the city range from about 20 to 25ft in height. And despite the state's long-honed expertise in facing this sort of threat and its enhanced post-Katrina storm defenses, residents were urged to be prepared.
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