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New Orleans during Tropical Storm Cindy: Updates on tornado watches, outages, road closures, and pump operation

Water pumps are operational; Tornado watch until 12 p.m. CDT

By Eric Craig

Yesterday, the City of New Orleans urged residents and businesses to prepare for the Tropical Storm Cindy that has impacted the Southeast United States and the Gulf Coast.

Weather monitors expect the storm to bring heavy rain and wind until Friday, June 23. New Orleans is under tornado watch until 7 p.m tonight (as of Wednesday, June 22). The city expects another to six inches of rain over the next 48 hours, according to Mayor Mitch Landrieu during today’s press conference.

“Just because we’re not in the cone doesn’t mean we’re not getting the impact,” Mayor Landrieu says. “We’re not out of it yet. We’ll be vigilante. We’ll keep giving you updates.”

Yesterday, over four inches of rain made landfall in the New Orleans metro area.

Earlier today, Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency over the state of Louisiana.

Road closures

The following roads will be closed due to flooding and high tides:

  • Highway 11 between Chef Menteur and Interstate-10
  • Chef Menteur between Highway 11 and Venetian Isles
  • Lakeshore Drive. Between West End and Seabrook
  • The Lake Pontchartrain Bridge: No Motorcycles, RVS, Glass trucks are allowed on the causeway bridge as of 11 a.m. this morning.

Entergy customer outages

Today, over 150 people in the New Orleans metro area are without power. Energy expects to restore power to those residents by 2 p.m. today, according to Energy spokesperson Melanie Stewart. On Wednesday, June 22, over 7,100 Entergy customers in the New Orleans Metro area lost power due to heavy rain and winds.

All pumps are operational

At the press conference, Cedric S. Grant, the executive director of the Sewaage and Waterboard of New Orleans, said all pumps are operation. During the storm, the pumps will displace 1-inch and hour, and a half-inch every proceeding hour. Both Mayor Landrieu and grant assured that the pump’s speed of displacement is at an optimal level.

For more information on storm safety and on-the-go updates for the New Orleans meto area, visit ready.nola.gov.