Washington (October 8, 2017): Hurricane Nate made United States landfall Saturday night as a Category 1 storm near the mouth of the Mississippi River in southeast Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory on the storm.
A second landfall is likely on the Mississippi coast a few hours after the eye of the storm passes over the Chandeleur Sound. The hurricane center said Nate has maximum sustained winds of 85 mph. It was moving north at 20 mph.
Rains had already soaked coastal Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi much of Saturday. As the storm approached the Gulf Coast, officials in Louisiana and other states implored residents to finish their storm preparations and get inside.
Jackson County in coastal Mississippi enacted a curfew that began at 7 p.m. CT (8 p.m. ET), several hours before the powerful northeastern side of the core is expected to arrive.
Gov. Phil Bryant urged county residents to head north away from the Gulf but there was no mandatory evacuation.
According t the details there were 13 shelters open in the southern part of the state. Bryant declared a state of emergency for six counties and any others that might be affected by Nate, the state’s emergency management agency said.
The National Weather Service said: “Wind and rain impacts will be confined to southeast Mississippi with the greatest impacts along the Interstate 59 corridor and coastal areas.”
A tornado watch was in effect for southern Mississippi, Alabama and the western part of the Florida panhandle. The watch stretched from Biloxi, Mississippi to Destin, Florida.
Nate was expected to knock down power lines and trees from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to the Florida Panhandle and possibly leave at least 1 million people without electricity.
“Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion in these areas, as tropical storm conditions will first arrive in the warning area this afternoon,” the hurricane center warned Saturday morning.
Nate could drop 3 to 6 inches of rain, with 10 inches possible in some areas, from the central Gulf Coast north across the Deep South, the eastern Tennessee Valley and the southern Appalachians through Monday, the hurricane center said.
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