Good Samaritan rescues pickup driver live on TV during Francine floods
A bystander who went into a flooded underpass to rescue a pickup driver who drove into the floodwaters and saved him on live television said he is an ER nurse and used to high-stress situations.
“I guess it is a big deal, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary, so to speak,” the rescuer, Miles Crawford, told NBC affiliate WDSU of New Orleans.
Crawford used a hammer to break a rear window and help pull the driver of a pickup to safety during WDSU’s live coverage of Hurricane Francine.
“I saw that there was a guy in there and the water was steadily rising,” he said. “I was seeing if we could find anything to break the window, and so I ran back to my house and grabbed a hammer and ran back.”
Number of severed power connections rises to 450,000
The amount of energy customers in the dark this morning as Tropical Storm Francine makes it way north through Louisiana continues to rise.
In Louisiana itself, there were more than 390,000 customers without energy at 7 a.m. ET, according to PowerOutage.us, as well as more than 60,000 in Mississippi and more than 10,000 in Alabama.
Streets become rivers in New Orleans suburb
High floodwaters have turned the streets of Bucktown, part of the north New Orleans suburb of Metairie, into a series of canals.
This video posted on X late last night shows the sheer extent of flash flooding as a result of Tropical Storm Francine.
Francine has weakened, but meteorologists warn life-threatening conditions remain
Tropical Storm Francine quickly weakened from a Category 2 hurricane after it made landfall last night and it could become a post-tropical storm as early as this morning.
But the danger for southern states is not over as the storm moves north.
"There is a danger of life-threatening storm surge during the next several hours for portions of the eastern Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines, where a Storm Surge Warning remains in effect," the National Hurricane Center said in a 5 a.m. ET update.
Heavy rainfall could continue to bring flash flooding to urban areas, including along rivers in the lower Mississippi Valley and the Tennessee Valley, the center said.
Streets flooded in New Orleans suburb as Francine passes
Major flooding hit the north New Orleans suburb of Metairie as storm Francine passed through the region in the early hours of this morning.
More than 400,000 without power in Louisiana and Mississippi
A huge number of energy customers are without power as Francine passes over New Orleans.
At 4:30 a.m., more than 372,000 connections were down in Louisiana and almost 30,000 in Mississippi, according to PowerOutage.us, with fears that the total could rise as severe weather continues.
Debris blocks roads in Louisiana as Francine draws near
A fallen tree blocks an intersection in Houma, Louisiana, yesterday as Hurricane Francine approaches from the Gulf of Mexico.
Francine packs a punch as it crosses Louisiana
Extreme flooding has struck New Orleans and more than 350,000 power outages were reported as Francine, now a tropical storm, pushed inland. NBC News’ Jay Gray and meteorologist Angie Lassman have the latest details on "Early TODAY."