AccuWeather's Ali Reid reported live from New Orleans on the evening of Sept. 10 as the city and the state braced for Hurricane Francine's projected landfall.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Our Allie Reed has made her way down into Louisiana and Allie, how is the region preparing
00:07ahead of landfall? We're down to about 24 hours or so.
00:13Well, Jeff, we've been here for the last couple of hours and it is evident that this city is
00:18taking this storm very seriously. I want to start with where we are live right now. We are in one of
00:23the neighborhoods here in New Orleans. It may not look very busy right now, but what you aren't
00:27seeing behind this building here is that this is the Rosenwald Recreation Center in the city.
00:33This opened at four o'clock today. This is for people in the area that are seeking shelter
00:37over the next couple of days. The city has actually worked with a number of organizations
00:42in this area to make sure that there are people that have a place to stay through at least
00:48Thursday. Now, earlier today, my photographer and I, we decided to rove about the area. We
00:53made our way to Laplace, Louisiana, about 45 minutes from where we are live right now from
00:59New Orleans. And it was there that people all throughout the area were making their way to
01:03different sandbagging locations, many of which they go, they find the sand or the dirt and they
01:10are putting them into bags themselves, bringing them back to their cars to bring back home.
01:16And you know what? As I was having conversations with people, they're nervous, right? They've
01:22dealt with these scenarios in the past. Isaac back in 2012, Ida back in 2021. And as they hear
01:30leading up to Francine, they're not messing around this time around. They say they want to be as
01:35prepared as possible. We spoke to a few of those people earlier. Take a listen to what they had to say.
01:41Just making sure we have enough sandbags for the front door, the back door, anywhere for neighbors
01:46if they need some. I think we're a little worried. We have some PTSD from Hurricane Ida,
01:51Isaac. So we know that we have to be well prepared, you know, for what's to come. We have to lean on
01:55each other to make sure that we're all OK, physically, mentally, emotionally. And, you know,
02:00this is what, you know, living in Louisiana is like. So, you know, something that we
02:05we have to get used to and something that we have to prepare for as well.
02:11Now you hear her. She is definitely in positive spirits. Many people feeling the same way.
02:16But in other conversations, we've had many people sad, nervous, visibly upset when they're
02:23talking about these storms. They know the destruction that they can cause. And they
02:28talked about a lot of those to the flooding, the severe damage that they can cause to their homes
02:33and just the mental awareness that comes around it to them being just very distraught because of
02:39the situation. Now we bring you back live in the city of New Orleans. We're going to check in with
02:44you in the next hour as we continue to follow the situation here, speak to people in the area as to
02:50what they're doing to prepare ahead of Francine. And certainly we'll continue that coverage into
02:54tomorrow for you guys, too, right here from the Big Easy. All right. We appreciate your reporting
03:00there, Ali. I know it's going to be a long road, but stay dry as best you can. And obviously,
03:06her message is very important. And again, those of you who still have electricity now,
03:09you may lose it over the next 24, 36 hours. Make sure that if you use a generator,
03:14keep it outside. Some of the recent storms that impacted Louisiana led to greater loss of life
03:21in the days and even weeks following landfall. So the fatalities in some cases didn't happen
03:27from flooding. They didn't happen from wind directly. And they didn't happen from tornadoes
03:31that will be embedded within the storm. They came from something very practical and something that
03:37you can totally avoid if you're wise about it.