Barry Makes Landfall In Louisiana, Weakens To Tropical Storm

Major storm Barry made landfall on the Louisiana coast on Saturday, slamming the region with heavy rains and ferocious winds as millions of Americans braced for the serious flooding expected to follow

Morgan City, United States, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Jul, 2019 ) :Major storm Barry made landfall on the Louisiana coast on Saturday, slamming the region with heavy rains and ferocious winds as millions of Americans braced for the serious flooding expected to follow.

After briefly becoming the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, Barry was quickly downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved inland -- but it nevertheless packed a serious punch.

The airport in the state's biggest city New Orleans was shut for the day, thousands of people were evacuated, flood gates were slammed shut and emergency personnel, National Guardsmen and volunteers were in position.

Earlier fears that the levee system in the Big Easy could be compromised had eased, with the Army Corps of Engineers voicing confidence that it would hold, but the city's mayor LaToya Cantrell urged residents not to be complacent.

"We are not in any way out of the woods," she told reporters, adding that flash flooding could still occur into Sunday.

At 1:00 pm (1800 GMT), the storm was packing sustained winds of 70 miles (115 kilometers) per hour, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest storm advisory.

The eye of the storm made landfall at Intracoastal City, to the west of New Orleans, and was moving at a slow pace of six miles an hour.

But it had already punished the Gulf Coast, unleashing downpours on Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.