Site last updated: Friday, March 14, 2025
Welcome, GuestSign In

Log In

Reset Password
MENU
Butler County's great daily newspaper

Hurricane Francine threatens Louisiana's coast with strong winds and flooding

A customer enters a gas station that is boarded up in anticipation of Hurricane Francine, in Morgan City, La., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (Associated Press)

MORGAN CITY, La. — Hurricane Francine barreled toward Louisiana on Wednesday as residents made last-minute trips to stock up on supplies and forecasters warned of potentially deadly storm surge, widespread flooding and destructive winds on the northern U.S. Gulf coast.

In Morgan City, gas stations had put plywood on the windows and moved trash cans inside, with a few pumps still serving the trickle of cars passing through shortly after dawn.

Retired boat captain Pat Simon, 75, and his wife, Ruth, loaded all their possessions in garbage bags and tied them down in the back of a rented U-Haul pickup truck as they evacuated their home near the banks of the Atchafalaya River near Morgan City.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that bad, like some of the other ones like Ida and Katrina,” Pat Simon said. “I mean, we’ve had some bad ones.”

More in National News

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

* indicates required
TODAY'S PHOTOS