LAKE CHARLES, La. — A weakened Tropical Storm Harvey made landfall in southwest Louisiana early Wednesday, leaving residents bracing for more wind, rain and possible tornadoes and hoping water would stay out of their sandbagged homes.
[The Latest: Harvey to slow to tropical depression tonight]
The storm came ashore before dawn just west of Cameron, Louisiana, bringing maximum sustained winds near 45 mph (72 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Harvey had lingered over Texas for days before meandering back into the Gulf of Mexico.
Forecasters said there was a risk of tornadoes across a large part of the South as Harvey trudged northeast toward northern Louisiana. The national Storm Prediction Center said a few tornadoes were expected to develop Wednesday in northeast Louisiana and across southern and central portions of Mississippi. Tornadoes would also be possible across parts of southern and central Alabama, near the eastern edge of Harvey's rain bands. At least five tornadoes from Harvey have been confirmed so far in Louisiana, although they have caused little damage.
Another 1 to 3 inches (2.5 centimeters to 7.5 centimeters) of rain could fall in western Louisiana, with up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) in spots, with the heaviest rain inland.
"We are starting to get down to the end of the tunnel of all this rain," Meteorologist Roger Erickson said.
Harvey appeared to have produced little damage overnight in southwest Louisiana, where hundreds of people were rescued from floodwaters earlier this week, officials said. Harvey's heaviest rains continued to stay west of Louisiana, just across the Sabine River in Texas. Lake Charles recorded less than 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain overnight.
"We're not out of the woods totally, but we're looking much better," Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso said
The heaviest overnight rain bands also spared New Orleans, where sun broke through the clouds after daybreak and schools reopened Wednesday after closing a day earlier.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu had urged New Orleans residents to stay home Tuesday because of the threat of potential high water. Some neighborhoods flooded earlier this month during a deluge that exposed problems with the city's pump and drainage system. On Tuesday, rains flooded a few of the city's streets, but not to the same extent.
Erickson, the Lake Charles meteorologist, warned that some coastal rivers won't be able to drain effectively because Harvey's winds are pushing in storm surge, aggravating flooding in areas already drenched by more than 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain. Gusts up to 40 mph (65 kph) are predicted for coastal areas, although Erickson said Harvey would weaken throughout the day.
Cameron Parish Administrator Ryan Bourriaque said storm surge apparently caused little damage along Louisiana's southwestern coast, although some water remained on roadways in parts of the parish. He said officials are likely to consider lifting a mandatory evacuation order for the southern end of the parish once damage assessments are complete.
"We acknowledge that we are certainly much better off that we could have been at this point," Bourriaque said.
[HOW TO HELP: Donate to assist those affected by Hurricane Harvey]
State offices in 28 parishes and most Baton Rouge area schools won't open Wednesday in anticipation of possible severe weather. Gov. John Bel Edwards urged people to remain alert but said the state is responding well to less severe conditions in its own borders.
"You never know what Mother Nature is going to throw at us, but with the people in this room, I'm confident we can handle it," he told local and state officials during a visit Tuesday to Lake Charles, which is near the Texas border.
Edwards said Louisiana also has offered to shelter storm victims from Texas. He said he expects Texas officials to decide within 48 hours whether to accept the offer.
Harvey's devastating flooding brought back tough memories in New Orleans as Tuesday marked the 12th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Mayor Mitch Landrieu opened his Tuesday news conference with a moment of silence for Katrina victims and words of support for Harvey's victims in Texas and southwest Louisiana.
"We've got to save our house," New Orleans resident Israel Freeman said as he loaded sandbags for his mother's home into his Cadillac. "She already went through Katrina. She built her house back up. We just had a flood about two, three weeks ago. She just recovered from that."
Bradley Morris lives in a ground-level house in New Orleans and was "preparing for the worst."
"There's plenty of puddling and stuff already," he said, "so I just assume that we're probably going to get a taste of what we had a couple weeks ago."
About 500 people were evacuated in southwest Louisiana's most populous parish early Tuesday, as a heavy band of rain pushed waterways out of their banks, Calcasieu Parish spokesman Tom Hoefer said. He said as many as 5,000 parish residents were affected by the flooding, but not all of those people have flooded homes. Some are just cut off by flooded roads.
Family members and authorities in Texas have reported at least 18 deaths from the storm. No Harvey-related deaths were immediately reported in Louisiana, according to a spokesman for Edwards.
Trump tweets about first-hand visit to Harvey's 'horror'
Just back from Texas, President Donald Trump tweeted on Wednesday that he had witnessed "first hand the horror & devastation" wrought by Harvey. He wrote that after seeing the widespread damage, "my heart goes out even more so to the great people of Texas!"
But Trump saw little damage during his visit to Corpus Christi - mostly boarded-up windows, downed tree limbs and fences askew. And that was through the tinted windows of his SUV as his motorcade took him from the airport to a firehouse in a city already nearly back to normal.
The president deliberately kept his distance from the epicenter of the damage in Houston to avoid disrupting recovery operations. Trump also visited Austin during Tuesday's trip, when he met with officials at the state emergency operations center.
Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, said Trump showed "genuine compassion" on the short flight to Austin as they watched video footage of the flooding in Houston. "The president was heartbroken by what he saw," Abbot said.
But Ari Fleischer, who served as press secretary to former President George W. Bush, said there was something missing from Trump's remarks in Corpus Christi: "empathy for the people who suffer."
Trump plans to return to the region Saturday to survey the damage and meet with some victims, according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Trump pledged that his administration would work tirelessly to help the region recover.
"We are going to get you back and operating immediately," Trump told a crowd outside a Corpus Christi fire station about 30 miles from where the storm made landfall Friday.
Trump was eager to get the federal disaster response right. But he missed clear opportunities to strike a sympathetic note for the multitudes suffering. The president did not mention those who died in the storm or those forced from their homes. He basked in the attention of cheering supporters outside the fire station where officials briefed him on the recovery.
"What a crowd, what a turnout," Trump declared before waving a Texas flag from atop a step ladder positioned between two firetrucks. "This is historic. It's epic what happened, but you know what, it happened in Texas, and Texas can handle anything."
[PHOTOS: Joel Osteen's church opens as a shelter as volunteers sort donations]
Trump is clearly determined to seize the moment and show a forceful response to Harvey, mindful of the political opportunities and risks that natural disasters pose for any president. Trump has been dogged by low approval ratings and self-created crises.
It's long been presidential practice to avoid visiting the most devastated areas of a natural disaster while recovery is still in the early stages, to avoid getting in the way or diverting critical resources. In Texas, residents seemed to understand.
Before Trump landed in Texas, Louis Sirianni arrived at his beach house in Rockport, about 20 miles outside Corpus Christi, to assess damage. Sirianni said he appreciated Trump's gesture and understood why there were no plans to take him into the hardest-hit area.
"He'd see enough if he came along here in a helicopter," Sirianni said on a balcony accessible only by a 12-foot aluminum extension ladder.
The president, during his stop in Austin, said it was a "sad thing" that the recovery would be a "long-term" operation.
His largely upbeat reassurances about a speedy recovery, though, stood in contrast to the more measured assessments coming from emergency management officials. There's a long, difficult road ahead in recovering from a storm whose flooding has displaced tens of thousands, those officials have cautioned.
Trump's promise of swift action on billions of dollars in disaster aid is at odds with his proposed budget. It would eliminate the program that helps Americans without flood insurance rebuild their homes and cuts grants to help states reduce the risk of flooding before disaster strikes.
Associated Press
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