Friday's headlines: More possible storms this weekend; Arthur’s aftermath in Harrison County

[00:00:00]Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for watching the WWL Louisiana News at 4.

[00:00:04]I'm Katie Moore in for Devin Bartholomew. Let's begin today with the top headlines for you. After severe storms moved through yesterday, leaving damage and flooding in many communities, we are now keeping an eye on the possibility of more storms over the weekend. So, we want to get a first check of your forecast now from meteorologist [music] Alexa Trischler.

[00:00:23]Alexa, what are you thinking? We were hearing it was going to be dry, but you think maybe more storms?

[00:00:28]>> I do think we're going to see a few more storms. Even a few storms are possible tonight, and then we're going to see some more tomorrow in the afternoon.

[00:00:34]We've got storms and heat. We're cleaning up from yesterday's significant damage that we saw, and it was extremely hot and muggy today. Temperatures right now are in the mid-90s, mostly some upper 90s in a few spots. 94 in Thibodaux, 97 in Mandeville. Here's what our feels like temperatures are right now. Up to 108 is how it feels in Houma.

[00:00:53]Feels like 102 in Slidell, 104 in Kenner. I did want to give you an update on the river levels because we were expecting them to rise, and they did, but all of our rivers on the Northshore and South Mississippi have already crested and are falling. So, that's a good thing. But, the West Hobolochitto Creek and the Jordan River are still in a major flood stage, but they are gradually coming down. Pearl River and the East Hobolochitto Creek are in a moderate flood stage. The Pearl River is going to remain steady over the next few days, but the East Hobolochitto is also gradually falling, and all of our Northshore rivers are in a minor flood stage. So, that is a good sign. However, we're still going to have our bodies of water running high, and they could get flooded again this weekend because we're going to have that risk of storms and heavy showers. Right now, we are mostly dry, but we have some isolated rain in Tangipahoa Parish. A stronger storm setting up over Amite City. So, we have a few isolated showers north of the lake now, and it is possible we could see a few storms developing this evening. You can't pay exact attention to this model run because it keeps changing, but it looks like we could have a few scattered storms this evening, especially across the Northshore and the South Mississippi, and then we could see some heavy downpours, and it won't take much to trigger some flooding concerns. So, we're going to have to watch for a little bit of isolated flooding tonight, and then going into this weekend, we'll see a few more scattered storms on Saturday in the afternoon. We'll talk more about what your weekend holds coming up in just a bit. Okay, a lot to talk about. Thanks so much, Alexa. As she just mentioned, multiple Mississippi rivers and creeks are in the major to minor flood stages right now. The worst are the ones listed on your screen right now. Those have crested, and many will likely drop over the next 24 hours. In nearby Harrison County, some areas are still flooded at this hour, and first responders have rescued dozens of people from the water already. As you can see, Rachel Hanley is there this afternoon for us. So, Rachel, what have you been seeing?

[00:02:43]>> We've been seeing some pretty serious damage, unfortunately, Katie. Behind me is Swan Lake. This is a private lake in a subdivision, and I want to show you what this heavy rain did to the dam surrounding the lake. The water took a huge chunk out of it. Thankfully, first responders here earlier told me that no people or properties were in danger from this water, even though I know it's pretty dry right now, but when we were here a few hours ago, you should have seen how much water was flowing through that breach. It was really something to see. You can see maybe even the waterline on the lake where those rocks are kind of stacked up at the edge of it. That's where the lake was before, and over the course of this dam breach, this is how much the water has dropped.

[00:03:24]So, we're talking about a huge amount of water, but they say that since no properties are down or you know, down in elevation from it, they should be all right, and nobody was in danger during this breach. But, the actual biggest worry that first responders are dealing with here, the fire chief tells me, is people cut off by floodwater in Harrison County. We've been driving around in the northern part of the county for most of the day. It's pretty hilly, and we would go for miles without seeing any flooding, and then all of a sudden an entire road would be underwater. We've also seen a few spots where the road has washed out completely. Both of the spots we're showing you are on McHenry Road. The fire chief says they've had more than 50 water rescues. They've saved people from cars, homes, and even people who were stuck in trees. That number is still going up.

[00:04:13]>> I've talked to some residents that said they've lived here their entire life and had not seen the type of water that they had in their neighborhoods and in their community and their entire life. And we're talking a gentleman that I talked to was 80 years old.

[00:04:31]>> Now, as you can imagine, there are a lot of roads that are still closed right now. If you live in the area and you need to keep an eye on it for your commute, I would recommend going to the Harrison County Sheriff's Department's Facebook page. They have a post that they've been keeping a running list of which roads are still closed because of flooding and which ones have reopened.

[00:04:49]In Gulfport, Rachel Hamilton, WWL, Louisiana.

[00:04:52]>> All right, thanks so much for that, Rachel. We appreciate it. Remember, you can always find the latest updates on this story, live weather radars, and all of today's headlines on our website, our social media pages, and our free app for your phone or your TV.