Louisiana bracing for Hurricane Francine's arrival

Louisiana was battening down the hatches as Hurricane Francine closed in on its shores Wednesday.

Francine , which developed in the Gulf of Mexico Monday, strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane Tuesday night and is forecast to make landfall over Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center says.

Francine is expected to reach Louisiana in the afternoon or evening and, the hurricane center says, "life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds" are expected to start hitting the state later Wednesday.

It's been strengthening rapidly over the last few hours and "is looking like it may indeed reach Category 2 status," says CBS News senior weather and climate producer David Parkinson. A hurricane gets classified as Category  2 when its winds hit 96 mph.

After landfall, Francine is forecast to cross over southeastern Louisiana before moving northward over Mississippi Thursday. The storm will "weaken quickly" once it moves inland, the hurricane center said.

The storm "is expected to bring storm total rainfall of 4 to 8 inches, with local amounts to 12 inches across much of Louisiana and Mississippi through Friday morning," the center added. There is potential for "considerable" flash and urban flooding. Southeastern Louisiana, including metropolitan New Orleans and Baton Rouge, are most vulnerable. So is southwestern Mississippi, including the entirety of its coastal region.

As of 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Francine's center was about 150 miles southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, and about 210 miles southwest of New Orleans, the hurricane center said. It was moving northeastward at 123 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph — which would make it a high-grade Category 1 storm. Forecasters said it could continue to strengthen throughout the morning.

President Biden approved an emergency declaration for Louisiana that will allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief and supplement the state's response to the hurricane, FEMA announced Wednesday.

Earlier, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry declared a state of emergency Monday evening ahead of Francine's arrival. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves issued an emergency declaration for his state as well.

"This State of Emergency will allow parishes statewide to have the resources to help protect the life, safety, and welfare of the citizens of Louisiana," Landry said on social media. "Throughout this process, we will remain in constant contact with local officals and first responders and will assist them in every step of the way."

In Morgan City, many business owners and residents were boarding up and evacuating Tuesday, with lines at gas station getting longer throughout the day, and some even running out of fuel.

As an essential worker in a hospital maternity ward, Carole Duplantis of Houma, Louisiana, can't evacuate.

"We deliver babies even through the hurricanes," Duplantis said.

She told CBS News she was using sandbags to protect her home, which is still being renovated after it was damaged by Ida in 2021, which struck as a Category 4 hurricane.

"No, I am not recovered yet," Duplantis said of Ida.

Cars and trucks were lined up for blocks in downtown New Orleans Tuesday waiting to get sandbags from the parking lot of a local YMCA as people prepared to try to prevent flooding of their homes, The Associated Press reports.

More than 2.3 million people along the Gulf Coast are under hurricane warnings, according to the National Weather Service. A hurricane warning was in place for the Louisiana coast from the Vermilion/Cameron Line eastward to Grand Isle. A tropical storm warning was in effect for the Louisiana coast east of Sabine Pass to the Vermilion/Cameron Line, east of Grand Isle to the Alabama/Florida border and Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain, including metropolitan New Orleans.

"We don't take this storm lightly because of the movement towards the East, which is closer to us," Randy Smith, sheriff of St. Tammany Parish north of New Orleans, said in a news conference Tuesday. "We're prepared for any emergencies that arise."

Storm surge warnings were in effect for areas from Cameron, Louisiana to the Mississippi/Alabama Border, Vermilion Bay, Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain.

A coastal flood warning was in effect Wednesday morning for the length of the Alabama coast, including Mobile Bay, replacing a storm surge watch issued earlier for the same region.

A coastal flood warning means "moderate to major coastal flooding is occurring or imminent," the National Weather Service writes , noting that this degree of flooding "will cause serious risk to life and property."

"We all know that the current projected path of Francine looks like it's headed toward Louisiana," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a news conference Tuesday afternoon in the southeastern Texas city of Beaumont, which is in a region that could be impacted by Francine. "We also know, however, that storms, even in the recent past, sometimes can deviate from what the prediction is. So for one, we're concerned about the possibility of the storm altering its course (and) moving more towards Texas, in which case the area that would be most likely challenged would be where we are right now, in Jefferson County, over in Orange County and surrounding areas."

He added that even if Francine stays on its latest trajectory, Jefferson and Orange counties would still see "enormous challenges."

The Miami-based hurricane center explains that a hurricane warning means hurricane conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area, and it's typically issued hours before the earliest arrival of tropical-storm-force winds that would hinder weather preparations. A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions are possible within the watch area, and a storm surge warning means there's a danger of life-threatening inundation, from rising water moving inland from the coastline, during the next 36 hours in the indicated locations.

Francine's development followed an unusually calm August and early September in the Atlantic hurricane season. Francine is the Atlantic season's sixth named storm .

Experts had predicted one of the busiest Atlantic seasons ever and, The Associated Press notes, Colorado State University researchers said last week they still expect an above-normal season overall.