Nicholas: Nearly 5 million people are monitored by instant floods as the storm hovers over the Gulf region

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Nicholas initially made landfall like a Category 1 hurricane in South Texas in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with winds of 75 mph with higher gusts. The storm also soaked parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle as it weakened to a tropical depression.
Located near Marsh Island along the central coast of Louisiana and with winds of 25 mph, Nicholas became a post-tropical cyclone Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center.

But even after its degradation, it still carries the potential risk of rapid flooding to approximately five million people in parts of southeastern Louisiana, southern Mississippi and Alabama, as well as the Florida Panhandle.

An additional 2 to 4 inches of rain may fall in the region through Friday, with some areas at risk of seeing 12 inches, according to the weather forecast center. Minor but widespread river floods and possible scattered moderate flooding are expected.
Instant flood clocks are effective when weather conditions are conducive to instant flooding, but it does not necessarily mean that instant flooding occurs, according to NWS.

Nicholas is expected to move slowly north in the coming days, the prediction center said.

Nicholas' erratic behavior makes it difficult to predict

“There is a mass of dry air moving north from the west, which will help suppress some of the rainfall in northern Louisiana in parts of northwestern Mississippi and western Tennessee.” said CNN meteorologist Michael Guy. “However, central and southern Louisiana could still see rain and storms through Friday, some of which could cause heavy rains.”

“Considerable impacts are possible from rapid flooding, especially in urban areas, in these regions,” the NWS said.

Georgia and the Carolinas are also forecast for heavy rain Thursday.

“Sometimes some of that rain will be heavy, so there’s still the threat of flooding,” Guy said.

Nicholas will slowly move north over the next 48 hours to southern Arkansas, where it will dissipate on Saturday morning, Guy said.

A car goes through flooding in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on September 15, 2021.

A few dozen oil spills need attention after Hurricane Ida

Meanwhile, Louisiana is still recovering from the fall of Hurricane Ida on August 29th.

The Category 4 storm and subsequent conditions claimed the lives of at least 29 people in Louisiana, with the latest mortality announced Tuesday by Gov. John Bel Edwards. Excessive heat is responsible for 13 deaths, while six people died from carbon monoxide poisoning, he said.

While Ida caused deadly floodwaters and long power outages during the storms, it also damaged the facility and caused some oil spills.

Edwards said only a few of the 100 oil spills that were reported needed action.

It could be weeks before some parts of Louisiana regain power

The Louisiana oil spill coordinator’s office is working with the U.S. Coast Guard, Edwards said during his statewide monthly radio program, and teams have reduced spills to “a few dozen” issues. they need more attention.

“None of which has a spill on the same level as the things we’ve seen in the past, with big hurricanes like Katrina, for example,” Edwards said.

He noted that an incident involved an abandoned pipe that was dislodged, which still had some product.

“I don’t know if we still know who would have been responsible, but this pipeline has been limited with the opportunity to go back and cover it so we can go back and vacuum it and get the product left out of it.” , said the governor. “But all of that went out to sea and I don’t think there’s any extra work that needs to be done there.”

CNN’s Monica Garrett, Rebekah Riess and Jason Hanna contributed to this report.

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