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

All flights out of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport have been canceled as Hurricane Francine makes landfall in the region. The airport will remain open for the time being according to their website but will close if “conditions become unsafe.” Some cancelations have already been made for flights scheduled Thursday morning.

“Individual airlines determine if and when to cancel flights or resume operations based on weather conditions in the area,” the update said.

Francine made landfall as a category 2 hurricane at around 5 p.m local time on Wednesday in Morgan City, La. Both the states of Mississippi and Louisiana have declared a state of emergency. Mandatory and voluntary evacuations are in effect for many of Louisiana's coastal parishes.

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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 warned of life-threatening storm surge.

Some areas are seeing up to 80-90% of energy customers without power.

Regions from the Florida panhandle to Louisiana are also under a tornado watch that will remain in effect until 6 a.m. local time.

“A few transient small supercells within the convective bands of Francine will pose a risk for a couple of tornadoes tonight into the early morning across the Watch area. This threat will gradually spread northward and inland tonight,” warns the Storm Prediction Center.

Oil and gas companies operation in the gulf region including Exxon Mobile and Shell have evacuated staff and paused some operations.

The National Weather Service said late Wednesday night that the worst of the rain has passed the greater New Orleans area and the flash flood risk has decreased.

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The flash flood warning has been decreased to a less severe flash flood warning for southwestern Orleans Parish, northwestern Jefferson Parish, northern St. Charles Parish and southwestern St. John the Baptist Parish, the weather service said.

Right next to New Orleans in Jefferson Parish is asking residents to conserve water in attempt to stop the area's sewers from backing up into homes.

New Orleans officials have said that some residents may not have the ability to call 911 from their cell phones. Anyone in an emergency unable to reach 911 are asked to call a backup police hotline.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said that the state deployed water rescue teams ahead of Francine's landfall and said he was also prepared to call in the National Guard if needed to assist.

August of this year marked the ninetieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the category 5 storm that killed over 1800 people and devastated the gulf region, particularly the city of New Orleans.

Francine is he sixth named storm so far this year.