Sandbags given out as area braces for Cristobal

Tropical Storm Cristobal made landfall on the Mexican coast late Wednesday and remained over southeastern Mexico Thursday morning, but forecasters are still predicting a Louisiana landfall late this weekend and early next week.
Sandbags were handed out to Crowley citizens on Thursday in preparation for the storm. Mayor Tim Monceaux authorized the distribution of six sandbags per vehicle.
Distribution continues from 7:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. today and from 7:30 a.m. until noon on Saturday at the Public Works building.
Cristobal weakened slightly since it made landfall but, once back out over the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico today, strengthening is expected.
The National Hurricane Center still has the storm making landfall slightly east of Vermilion Bay late Sunday into early Monday morning as a tropical storm with winds at about 60 mph.
The current window of where predicted landfall is most likely extends from the upper Texas coast to the Mississippi Panhandle, putting central Louisiana in the middle of that zone.
While there is still plenty of uncertainty with the storm regarding specific impacts, forecasters are looking at an increase in the tides on Sunday afternoon with the water starting to come up, and breezy conditions picking up as early as Saturday evening.
The rain is expected to hold off until Sunday late afternoon and will continue into Monday, eventually starting to lift out of the area through the day on Tuesday. This could lead to some flooding concerns but it’s still unknown where the worst swaths of rain will set up.
“Provided Cristobal does not get beaten down too much by interaction with Mexico, there is a chance the storm strengthens to a hurricane over the central Gulf of Mexico later this weekend, prior to reaching the U.S.,” said Dan Kottlowski, AccuWeather’s top hurricane expert.
A strong tropical storm or minimal hurricane that maintains forward speed as it moves inland over the South can still unload several inches to a foot of rain, which is enough to lead to urban and low-lying area flooding as well as rises on area rivers and bayous.
Should Cristobal remain a tropical storm or a minimal hurricane, the danger from flooding, waves and winds would be substantially less than if a Category 2 or 3 hurricane was moving inland.
Typically, the greatest storm surge and coastal flooding occurs near the center to several dozen miles to the east of the point of landfall. However, bays and shallow waters as well as flat land areas can contribute to a substantial increase in the storm surge effect.
As winds increase with the strengthening storm, seas over the Gulf of Mexico are expected to transition from choppy to very rough this weekend. Waves propagating outward from the approaching and strengthening storm will lead to building breakers and an increase in the strength and number of rip currents as well as beach erosion.
An uptick in rip currents can occur in some coastal areas of the U.S. as early as Friday night and Saturday.