Elizabeth Stevens anxiously watched floodwater creep closer to her doorstep in suburban New Orleans early Thursday, as Tropical Storm Francine made its way through Louisiana, dumping up to nine inches of rain in some parts.
Residents hunkered down in their homes across the southern part of the state, which suffered destruction during Katrina in 2005 and Ida in 2021. Many residents still speak of their trauma from that devastation. Homes and infrastructure such as roads and power lines remain vulnerable to storms in many areas.
Ms. Stevens, an elementary schoolteacher, spent Wednesday securing her house, which was rebuilt and raised after it was damaged by Katrina. She moved outdoor furniture and garbage bins inside, and stocked up on ice ahead of Francine’s expected landfall that evening.
As night fell, she found herself trapped.
“There’s floodwaters around my house, I can’t get out to see anything,” she said from her home in Metairie, La., adding that the water rose even after the rain stopped. “I’m hoping by morning it will start going down.”
Ms. Stevens said she managed to stow her mother’s S.U.V., but her Toyota Corolla was stuck in the driveway. Her lawn was submerged in knee-deep, murky water.
There were similar scenes across the New Orleans area and southern Louisiana. Streets were blocked and floodwaters entered homes and businesses in neighborhoods along Interstate 10, from New Orleans to St. Charles Parish, said Christopher Bannan, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Slidell, La.
“This isn’t really any comparison to Katrina or Ida, but every storm is different,” he said. “We definitely had quite a bit of rain in some areas that just couldn’t handle the rain, like New Orleans, because they have to pump their water out.”
Kenner and Metairie, parts of Jefferson Parish that are at sea level, were some of the hardest-hit areas, he said. The drainage system there, which pumps rainwater through levees into the Mississippi River or Lake Pontchartrain, was overwhelmed.
In Metairie, around 20 houses located off the canals were flooded, Councilman Hans Liljeberg said, adding that the wind and rain were worse than many residents had expected.
“Some of the canals have overtopped,” he said. “Our pumping capacity just couldn’t keep up with the amount of rain.”
In the neighboring Orleans Parish, the pumps malfunctioned because of the power outages, the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans said.
Power outages also plunged entire neighborhoods into darkness. More than 390,000 customers were without power in Louisiana early Thursday, according to the tracking site PowerOutage.us.
Ms. Stevens, 36, said that she was worried that Francine would bring a disaster similar to Katrina. But early Thursday, there was some relief. The floodwaters had not entered her living space and her home still had power.
“It’s just more of an inconvenience” she said. “I’m going to have to get a new car. It’s just a headache.”
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