Southeast Arkansas Sees Heavy Rain As Cindy Passes Through
- by Nancy Warren
- in Research
- — Jun 25, 2017
(CNN) - Tropical Storm Cindy made landfall Thursday in southwestern Louisiana, bringing heavy rain and powerful winds to the already soaked US Gulf Coast.
Tropical storm force winds of 39 miles per hour or higher are expected closer to the coast, but Cindy is expected to gradually weaken as it tracks toward the ArkLaTex.
A flash flood watch was issued through Friday afternoon for the southern and eastern half of the state.
Cindy is expected to dump 3 to 6 inches (7.5 to 15 cm) of rain as it heads north and east into the Ohio Valley and the Appalachian Mountains through Saturday, said Brian Hurley, a weather service meteorologist. That also doesn't necessarily mean anything extraordinary for us, though recent soggy weather has left us susceptible to some flooding risk, and we will likely see rain between Thursday evening and early Saturday, possibly an inch or more in many locations. There is a 70-percent chance of rain tonight, and 30-percent chance on Saturday, mainly before 1 p.m.
A 10-year-old boy from the St. Louis area was killed on an Alabama beach when he was struck by a log that washed ashore.
In southwest Louisiana, not far from where Cindy came ashore before dawn, trucks navigated knee-high water in the streets of Cameron Parish - but there was no serious flooding. "It is not necessarily normal to have as much rain as we've had this month", National Weather Service meteorologist Keith Stellman said. Visiting from MS like he does every year, Jeff Rosmond says he couldn't see the waves from his porch during the worst of the storm, since the water and sand rose two feet in front of his house, and blocked the view.
Tropical Storm Cindy is now a tropical depression.
"We're not done with the threat yeat", Stefkovich said.
For a couple of days, Tropical Storm Cindy put on a show on the West End of Dauphin Island.
Perhaps most terrifyingly, Alabama officials have warned residents to watch out for floating colonies of fire ants, which can clump together into angry masses during floods.
Stefkovich said after the system moves north out of Alabama, another front is expected to bring scattered showers and thunderstorms, including more heavy rain. Last June, torrential rains and flooding claimed 23 lives in West Virginia.
Friday started off exceptionally muggy and will be uncomfortable throughout the day, with the chance for showers and thunderstorms steadily increasing over the course of the afternoon and evening, Storm Team 4 says. There were numerous reports of waterspouts and short-lived tornadoes spawned by the storm.
