Gov. Edwards holds news conference as state prepares for Tropical Storm Nicholas

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Gov. John Bel Edwards held a news conference on Monday, Sept. 13. as Louisiana’s preparations for Tropical Storm Nicholas and much of the southeastern part of the state is still recovering from Hurricane Ida.

Forecasters with the National Hurricane Center (NHC) predict heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Nicholas and its remnants will impact portions of Texas and Louisiana through the middle of the week.

The National Weather Service issued a Flash Flood Watch on Monday afternoon for most of south Louisiana until 7 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 16.

A FLASH FLOOD WATCH has been issued for the areas in green. pic.twitter.com/qRiIa2CRwT
— WAFB First Alert Weather (@WAFBweather) September 13, 2021

“Significant rainfall amounts are possible, potentially resulting in areas of life-threatening flash and urban flooding, especially in highly urbanized metropolitan areas,” NHC forecasters say.

As of Monday afternoon, there were still more than 118,000 power outages statewide. Hurricane Ida made landfall in southeast Louisiana on Aug. 29.

On Monday, Gov. John Bel Edwards requested a pre-landfall Federal Declaration of Emergency in a letter to President Joseph R. Biden in advance of Tropical Storm Nicholas, which is forecast to bring heavy rainfall and potentially damaging flash flooding to Louisiana this week.

On Sunday, Gov. Edwards declared a state of emergency for Tropical Storm Nicholas, allowing the state to begin its preparations and to assist local governments as they respond. A pre-landfall federal disaster declaration would allow Louisiana to mobilize federal resources the state already has in place as well as to request additional resources if needed.

“Nicholas will likely be weakening into a depression as its center slowly moves into Louisiana early Wednesday morning and will exit into Southern Mississippi by Thursday morning. Life-threatening rainfall is our primary concern Tuesday through Thursday, with between six and 10 inches likely across Southwest and South Louisiana with locally higher amounts possible, especially given the slow storm motion. Because of the heavy rainfall this storm will bring, flash flooding will be the greatest threat of this system. It also has the potential to cause river flooding in Southwest and Southeast Louisiana. The ongoing storm recovery will be a compounding threat because homes are already damaged, people are already displaced and storm debris from Ida could be blocking drainage systems, causing rainwater to accumulate more quickly than normal, which will potentially enhance the flash flooding threat,” Gov. Edwards said. “I hope that no one dismisses this threat just because Nicholas is not expected to become a hurricane. I’ll remind everyone that Ida caused significant problems all the way into the Northeast due to flash flooding and tornadoes.”

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