Hurricane Francine slams southern Louisiana

Meteorologist Tony Laubach and Ed Grubb track Hurricane Francine as residents ride out and clean up in its wake.

Transcript

00:00When the storm chasers show up here on your doorstep, you know it's coming in this direction, you know.

00:04Hurricane Francine was the third named storm to make landfall in the U.S. this year,

00:09and myself and Ed Grubb flew out Tuesday to track it as residents in the area were prepping to ride it out along the Louisiana coast.

00:16It's a lot of anticipation, you know, when they say it's coming in the Gulf,

00:20and immediately, you know, they strike a line to you and they say it's coming here.

00:25Steve Bergeron was one of the residents prepping for Francine's arrival in Morgan City,

00:29one of the towns in the direct line of fire.

00:31Another town about an hour east was Houma, where Ed and myself set up to intercept Francine's eastern eyewall.

00:40Francine made landfall as a Category 2 Wednesday evening,

00:43knocking out power to thousands as she brought a long period of heavy rain and wind.

00:47It lasted for about six hours total.

00:50It got a lot more than what most people thought.

00:54We had some awnings fly over our heads and a lot of trees down, a lot of water.

01:01In addition to trees, many buildings sustained roof damage,

01:04some of those flying roofs taking out power poles and blocking roads here in Houma.

01:08The winds continued into the night as many folks were left in the dark.

01:14At first light, residents were cleaning up the mess, many taking it upon themselves to help their neighbors.

01:19Our neighbors still have some debris, so we're going to get it cleared up.

01:22Just to do it, help everybody out, that's how we do it around here.

01:26A process that will take days, if not weeks, to complete.

01:29Just like always, we come back around, you know, as stronger as ever.

01:34We rebuild and we get ready for the next hurricane.

01:36It's one of those things, it's South Louisiana.

01:38For AccuWeather, I'm meteorologist Tony Laubach.