More than 19,000 Without Power As Severe Storms Flood New Orleans

The New Orleans Area is experiencing scattering pockets of power as heavy thunderstorms continue to move through the region, leaving streets throughout the city flooded and impassable.

Over 19,000 businesses and homes are currently without power in the seven-parish area, according to Entergy, New Orleans outage reporting website. The city suspended streetcar and bus service at about 9:00 am.  The RTA claims service will resume once streets and routes clear.

The vast majority of outages are in New Orleans, leaving more than 10,500 without power. The neighborhoods most severely affected include Uptown near Tulane University and Audubon Park, Algiers, Gentilly Woods, and Lake Terrace.

In addition to the outages, the storms have triggered flash flood emergencies around the city, as more than 5 inches of rain fell in three hours-with more on the way.

According to NOLA.Com Louisiana Governor, John Bel Edwards, is expected to issue a statewide emergency declaration around 2:00 pm. The governor office says residents should expect up to 15 inches of rain by Saturday, and anticipate some Mississippi River levees to be overtopped south of New Orleans.

“This is going to be a very significant weather event. It would be in and of itself, but if you look at the fact that we got the elevated Mississippi River and we’ve had more rainfall in Louisiana over the last several months than normal, you know that it makes it much harder to deal with events of this type,” said Gov. John Bel Edwards at a Wednesday morning briefing from the state Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness in Baton Rouge.

The storms in New Orleans are not being caused by the offshore storm that will impact the state this weekend, said Gov. John Bel Edwards. The system likely will be named a tropical depression, Wednesday and could be tagged as Tropical Storm Barry by Thursday.