Hundreds of thousands still without power after Hurricane Francine leaves huge swathe of destruction

Hurricane Francine has left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without power after it pummeled into Louisiana on Wednesday as a Category 2 hurricane.

Francine made landfall as a category 2 hurricane on Wednesday afternoon in Morgan City, La., leading both Mississippi and Louisiana to declare a state of emergency and mandatory and voluntary evacuations. More than 365,000 homes and businesses are experiencing power outages in Louisiana alone and residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, southern Alabama and western Florida have been warned of life-threatening storm surge.

Power outages topped 390,000 early Thursday in Louisiana, with an additional 46,000 outages reported in Mississippi, according to the Associated Press. There have been no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.

• Hurricane Francine smashes into Louisiana as thousands plunged into blackouts amid 100mph winds

• Hurricane Francine sees all flights cancelled from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport

Francine slammed the Louisiana coast Wednesday evening with 100 mph winds in coastal Terrebonne Parish, a coastal region that still has not recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes in 2020 and 2021. The system then moved towards New Orleans, bringing with it torrential rain.

Up to 6 inches of rain was forecasted in parts of Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Georgia, and up to 10 inches possible in some parts of Alabama and Florida. The cities of Jackson, Mississippi; Birmingham, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; and Atlanta, faced flash flood warnings.

By Thursday Francine was from a tropical storm to a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph as it churned north-northeast over Mississippi and the system was expected to continue weakening and become a post-tropical cyclone later in the day before slowing down and moving over central and northern Mississippi through early Friday.

• Hurricane season may be more dangerous than ever this year due to rising ocean temperatures

• NOAA issues 'most aggressive hurricane forecast on record' as 4 to 7 major storms predicted

Jefferson Parish street remained flooded and canals were still high, parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said in a social media post. Pumps that operated through the night could not keep up with the storm, causing sewer system problems, she said.

She asked residents to give the parish time to clear the streets, noting that the hazards after a storm can sometimes be more dangerous than the storm itself.

Sheriff's deputies helped evacuate dozens of people, including many small children, who were trapped by rising water Wednesday evening in Thibodaux.

Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said deputies also rescued residents in the Kraemer community. The sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Francine drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters.