"I'll make my decision tomorrow around 2," she said.
But some of those fears were assuaged on Saturday, when officials said that the river was By evening though, the National Weather Service said that heavy rain was expected in New Orleans, issuing tornado and flash flood warnings for the city.New Orleans officials had advised most residents to shelter in place rather than leave town. The couple runs a cake-making business from home, and the storage unit was stuffed with cookbooks. And there was nothing to do but wait for the river to rise.“Just waiting is the hardest part,” said Ms. Will, 53.The storm came ashore near Intracoastal City, La., a low-lying industrial town in Vermilion Parish, south of Lafayette, La. Barry, set to be the first tropical system to hit the United States this year, is moving slowly, the weather service said. "Gulf Coast residents should prepare now for heavy rains, flooding and high wind impacts regardless of this storm's category," the FEMA statement said. Although linking any individual weather event to climate change requires extensive scientific analysis, Barry and the trouble it is causing carry the hallmarks of a warming planet’s influence on weather events.While the Gulf Coast has always had hurricanes, the extreme rain associated with this storm, originally projected to be anywhere from 10 to 20 inches, or even more, fits into emerging scientific research that suggests that Mayor LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans said on Saturday that flooding was still a threat, and warned people to not get comfortable.“We are not out of the conditions that will cause heavy rainfall for the city of New Orleans,” she said.But some worry had already begun to drain out of the city. That deluge would follow the 9 inches that fell Wednesday in New Orleans, flooding parts of the city. A near citywide blackout there prompted officials to shut down the faltering electrical system to make repairs, meaning that the power would stay off through the storm.Still, the 30 inches of rain that the mayor, Frank Grizzaffi, had been expecting turned out to be much less. More rain was still to come, but by midday Mr. Grizzaffi was in better spirits.“It is a dangerous and life-threatening storm. She was struck by the flooding Wednesday, "and the real storm hasn't even hit," she said. NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Barry crept onto the shores of Louisiana west of flood-weary New Orleans on Saturday, drawing cautious optimism … It was expected to plow up through the state toward the Arkansas border.The storm was originally expected to make landfall around Morgan City, La. But the threat of flooding brought on by the storm’s incessant rain remained high, particularly in and around Baton Rouge, as the system churned north.“This is just the beginning,” Gov. They gutted everything to the ceiling, and just finished their repairs in December.Now it looked like everything could be ruined again. “For the most part, we’re holding up.”Elsewhere there was trouble. It simply could not keep up with Wednesday's downpour, Barnes said, noting that any system in the country would have been outpaced. An evacuation typically wouldn't be considered until the storm was a Category 3, she said, and for now, the strategy is to shelter in place. "Another resident, Claire Grogan, was also planning to evacuate. Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Barry crept onto the shores of Louisiana west of flood-weary New Orleans on Saturday, drawing cautious optimism from city residents who saw little rainfall from the storm as of evening, and from officials in western coastal parishes that were drenched and battered but had prepared for much worse.After a brief life as a Category 1 hurricane, Barry was downgraded to a tropical storm as it made landfall and continued to weaken. For 40 years, she's lived in the French Quarter, mere blocks from the Mississippi River, she said, and has never been scared. New Orleans has issued a shelter-in-place order for citizens beginning Friday evening as Tropical Storm Barry creeps its way along the Gulf of Mexico. "There's no system designed to pump that capacity of rain," she said. Tropical Storm Barry was expected to bring heavy rains through the weekend.Federal, state and local officials monitored the storm at the State Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge, La., on Saturday.The storm was originally projected to make landfall at Morgan City, La.Flood warnings have been issued in Louisiana and Mississippi, as Barry slowly moves north.Mitchell Anderson, an employee at Donz on the Lake, in Mandeville, La., sat inside the flooded bar.Elijah Fontenot rides his bike next to his wife, Jenna, in Mandeville, along Lake Pontchartrain. A parish spokeswoman there said the levees had not been breached, though the parish president, Kirk Lepine, said the highway eventually “could become impassable.”In rural Terrebonne Parish, a small levee that overtopped prompted officials there to order a mandatory evacuation for about 330 residents in the parish’s lowest reaches on Saturday afternoon.The United States Coast Guard rescued about a dozen people by helicopter on Saturday morning from Isle de Jean Charles, a community of about two dozen people outside the area’s flood protection system, said Mart Black, a Terrebonne Parish official.Expected rainfall and path for a storm that threatens Louisiana.Strong gusts of wind and steady rain began to whip Lafayette by the afternoon, though it remained, for the moment, flood-free. New Orleans has not issued mandatory or voluntary evacuations, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said. The two that aren't are relatively small, she said, and are at stations with other functioning pumps in the Lakeview area and New Orleans East.Still, the system of pumps, underground pipes and canals is designed to remove only 1 inch of rainwater in the first hour of a storm and a half-inch in subsequent hours.