Francine pummels Louisiana as Category 2 hurricane, thousands lose power

Francine made landfall Wednesday evening as a Category 2 hurricane and rumbled across Louisiana overnight, knocking out power for more than 400,000 people and flooding numerous streets.

No deaths or injuries were immediately reported, but several people were rescued by first responders and good Samaritans in and around New Orleans.

One man noticed a pickup truck nearly covered by water under a highway overpass , so he sprinted out and pulled the driver to safety.

“I’m a nurse, so got to save lives, right?” Miles Crawford told local NBC affiliate WDSU, which caught the rescue live on camera . “I’m used to high-stress, high-level things on a daily basis.”

On Thursday morning, around 330,000 people in Louisiana remained without power , according to online tracker poweroutage.us. About 45,000 people in Alabama and 30,000 people in Mississippi didn’t have electricity.

About 6 to 8 inches of rain fell in the New Orleans metro area , according to the National Weather Service. Several streets flooded overnight, but the waters were receding by Thursday afternoon.

Though it made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane with winds at 100 mph, Francine quickly weakened over land and was a tropical depression by Thursday afternoon, with peak winds of only about 35-40 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

However, the storm was expected to bring relentless rain to the mid-South over Thursday and Friday, forecasters warned.

Because of a high pressure system in the Northeast , Francine was expected to stall over Tennessee, southern Kentucky and northern portions of Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia from Thursday through Friday.

“Francine will continue to bring heavy rainfall and the risk of flash and urban flooding, along with river flooding,” the National Hurricane Center warned Thursday. “Considerable flash and urban flooding is possible through tonight over portions of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, expanding into Georgia and middle Tennessee [on] Friday.”

The storm made landfall Wednesday evening about 30 miles southwest of Morgan City, which is about 70 miles west of New Orleans. It is only the third tropical cyclone to make landfall in the U.S. this year, following Hurricane Beryl , which hit Texas, and Hurricane Debby , which struck Florida.

With News Wire Services