Louisiana leaders give storm damage updates after Francine brings heavy rain, strong wind to state

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Gov. Jeff Landry and other Louisiana officials gave updates about storm damages from Francine in a press conference on Thursday, Sept. 12.

Francine hit the coast on Wednesday, Sept. 11 as a Category 2 but was reduced to a Category 1 as wind speeds decreased. Around 10 p.m. Wednesday, the storm was downgraded to a tropical storm.

Francine was predicted to bring heavy rain and strong winds with the potential to cause flooding and power outages across the state.

During the press conference, Landry said there were no reports of storm-related fatalities “as of right now.”

Sen. John Kennedy spoke at the briefing and said Louisiana will “get the money that we deserve from the federal government to help us.”

“I want to thank the government. I want to thank this entire team. I want to thank our state and local officials. They are on top of this,” Kennedy said.

Executive Secretary of the Public Service Commission Brandon Frey said outage numbers for the state peaked at around 410,000, excluding Morgan City and Houma, but are dropping.

“The numbers we’re seeing coincide with our landfall, obviously the highest outages are in Lafourche and Terrebonne, following up the River Parishes through the North Shore,” Frey said.

State climatologist Jay Grymes said Francine has moved out and that Louisiana is done with the impacts of the storm.

“We’re looking at a string of days that are going to be beneficial for continued response and recovery,” Grymes said.

Landry and other officials stressed that residents should stay off the roads if possible so crews can clean up the roads and help people in need.

Landry will tour the places hit by Francine after the press conference.