Tornadoes In MS; Lake Charles Floods
The government has issued a Tornado Watch for Mississippi today as severe thunderstorms and tornadoes break out east of Tropical Storm Rita.
A tornado was reported on the ground near Greenville, Mississippi at 4 p.m. Eastern.
Below is a radar image from 4:45 pm eastern, courtesy NOAA.
Shown below are lightning strikes (yellow and white), tornado warnings (red), severe thunderstorm warnings (yellow), and tagged severe storms (red triangles = tornadic signatures, green boxes = rotation, blue circles = hail). Radar image (zoomed in near Yazoo, Mississippi) courtesy AccuWeather.com RadarPlus.
You can see current watches and warnings in Mississippi on AccuWeather.com's Severe Weather Center.
It is unclear from media reports how much flooding is occurring in the city of Lake Charles, Louisiana today, but the government's flood information paints a grim picture. Their report for the Calcasieu River at Saltwater Barrier indicated that the forecast stage on the river was 12.5 feet today. According to NOAA, this would cause "major flooding of residential areas, marshlands, recreational camps, access roads, and river front areas." This would be near the record stage, which is 13 feet, at which point "over half of the city of Lake Charles would be flooded."
As far as official news reports, FoxNews says on-air at 5:30 p.m. Eastern) that they are trying to get a camera crew into the town of Lake Charles to provide footage, but are having trouble getting around all the downed trees. The Statesman reported that "extensive flooding" was occurring and water was "waist deep" in some parts of town. The Courier Post has a photo of the park near the shore completely underwater with waves lapping against trees.
Report a Typo
