Governor John Bel Edwards says to expect Tropical Storm Nicholas to be downgraded to a depression as it enters southwest Louisiana, but noting that it doesn’t take a named storm to bring dangerous conditions to the state.
“Life-threatening flash flooding will be the primary concern,” said Edwards.
Nicholas is expected to be a tropical depression once the center of the storm moves into Louisiana on Wednesday.
“And I would only have to point back to 2016 here, and in May of this year as well, that we had unnamed storms that caused significant property damage,” said Edwards.
The rains that Tropical Storm Nicholas will bring to the state, even as a depression, could exacerbate the problem of getting more of Ida storm victim out of the dark after weeks without power.
“It’s possible that…that uh…not just the continued restoration efforts could be slowed, but some of what has already been restored could be lost as well for some period of time,” said Edwards.
According to the Louisiana Public Service Commission, 110-thousand customers had still not had their power restored after the massive destruction to energy systems in southeast Louisiana.
Edwards is warning that south Louisiana is facing anywhere from two to 20 inches of rain from the storm system as it moves eastward across the state. The state fire marshal’s office has tripled the number of boats on standby to carry out rescues where and when necessary.
Meantime, Edwards says the death toll from Ida in Louisiana has climbed by two to 28…the latest victims said to be elderly and from Baton Rouge died of heat-related causes due to a loss of power during Ida.
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