Mississippi residents fill sandbags to prepare for Hurricane Francine

As Francine made landfall in Louisiana, people farther north along the storm's path in Mississippi made last-minute preparations.

Transcript

00:00Among all of our team that's been assembled to cover this storm, we head up into Jackson,

00:04Mississippi, where Emmy Victor is in place. Emmy, I know some people have been preparing

00:08with sandbags today. Yeah, Jeff, it's been so important for people to grab those. You know,

00:15I'm here in Jackson, Mississippi today, where it has been raining on and off throughout the day.

00:20However, it hasn't been too heavy at points, so that has really helped people I've spoken with

00:25get prepared the best way they can. And that best way is by grabbing sandbags. I'm here at

00:31one of three dozen sites across the state of Mississippi today where people have been picking

00:36up these shovels and grabbing them, filling up these bags to get prepared to safeguard their

00:42home. We know that people have been coming in and out of this site all day long. And what's

00:47really interesting, one thing I noticed is that people aren't just coming in and grabbing one or

00:52two or three or five of them. They've been grabbing 10 to 20 bags. A lot of people telling

00:57me that they're grabbing bags from themselves, but they're also grabbing bags for family and

01:02friends, people who they know couldn't get here today. I spoke with one person who lives in a

01:07low-lying area, and she told me a bit more about why it's so important that she has these sandbags.

01:12Take a listen. But I live on a corner lot, so literally all the water is going to pour.

01:20I'm not kidding. It's going to pour down to my yard and it's going to flood. I already know it's

01:25going to flood. That's why I'm doing this. So yeah, I don't even mind because I would rather

01:31do this than my yard flood. So yeah. And with it approaching 8 p.m. local time, a lot of these

01:40sandbag stations are now closed for the day. So what does that mean next? A lot of people now are

01:45going home. Officials are urging people to get inside because the biggest impacts from the storm

01:51are going to be tonight into tomorrow morning. And we're not just talking about flooding. That

01:55certainly is a big concern for this storm, but we're also talking about potential for downed

01:59trees, power outages, lots of different concerns. So it's very important that people are inside

02:05through the duration of this day if they can be, not out on the roads because we know

02:10conditions can quickly deteriorate and cause a very dangerous situation for people here in

02:15Jackson. Jeff. All right, Emmy. So if you have the option for work and you can work remote,

02:20maybe it'll be a day with Zoom meetings instead of commuting to work and for good reason with

02:25all that heavy rain coming your way into the heart of Mississippi. Thanks again for that

02:28report there. Emmy Victor in Jackson, Mississippi. Right now the current view of radar in Jackson,

02:34you know, this looks like a generic rain event right now, but keep in mind we have a hurricane

02:38to the south and that's going to be pivoting through the area. So we have a lot of big

02:41concerns as we move forward. And again, we're going to be dealing with the big risk here for

02:48serious flooding.