Horrifying footage as Hurricane Francine flooding traps residents & 100mph winds wreck homes leaving 350k without power

HURRICANE Francine has made landfall in Louisiana, battering the southern region with 100 mph winds that have left over 350,000 homes without power and neighborhoods submerged in water.

Dramatic footage showed the powerful Category 2 storm slamming onto the state with torrential rainfall and flash flooding on Wednesday evening.

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Neighborhoods in southeast Louisiana were submerged in waters, with numerous roads blocked by down trees and debris.

Photos showed a tree ripped off its roots in Morgan City, about 82 miles south of Baton Rouge.

“It’s a little bit worse than what I expected to be honest with you,” Morgan City Fire Chief Alvin Cockerham told CBS News .

“I pulled all my trucks back to the station. It’s too dangerous to be out there in this.”

The powerful winds knocked out powerlines, leaving over 350,000 homes in the southeast region without power as of Thursday morning, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us .

About 21 miles north of Morgan City, several roofs were damaged or completely ripped off by the strong winds in Franklin.

“We have had some roofs severely damaged and even gone,” a spokesperson for the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office told the outlet.

At least 26 people were rescued from flooding waters in Lafourche Parish, about 47 miles southwest of New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS ON ALERT

The New Orleans area, which was utterly devastated by Hurricane Katrina nearly two decades ago, is expected to experience flooding.

The New Orleans Saints NFL team was sent home early from practice on Wednesday as Francine rapidly approached the city.

Head coach Dennis Allen confirmed that he and his staff would ride out the storm at the team’s practice facility.

“We’ll stay here this evening,” Allen said on Wednesday.

“We’ll probably find a corner of the room to lay down in at some point in time and get a little bit of sleep.

“Because I think the most significant weather is gonna be this evening into the early morning hours.

“That’s kind of when we would be trying to wrap up. I don’t see anyone trying to get out of here in that type of weather.”

The National Weather Service has put out an emergency flash flood alert for residents in New Orleans.

FRANCINE’S PATH

Meteorologists expect Francine to downgrade to a tropical storm as it makes its way across west-central Mississippi Thursday into Friday.

“On the forecast track, the center of Francine will move over central and northern portions of Mississippi through early Friday,” the National Hurricane Center said.

“Continued weakening is forecast, and Francine is expected to become a tropical depression this morning and degenerate to a post-tropical cyclone today.”

Meteorologists have warned the hurricane could bring up to 6-12 inches of rain in some parts of Tennessee , Alabama , Georgia , and the Florida Panhandle.

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