Barry makes landfall in Louisiana

By Veronica Rocha, Meg Wagner, Elise Hammond, Paul Murphy and Emily Dixon, CNN

Updated 2:40 p.m. ET, July 15, 2019
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2:40 p.m. ET, July 15, 2019

Our live coverage of Tropical Storm Barry has ended. Scroll through the posts below to see how it unfolded.

7:12 p.m. ET, July 13, 2019

'When they say go, I go': Barry evacuee says

Joyce Webber, 64, has been sleeping on a cot, surrounded by her neighbors at a shelter in Baldwin, Louisiana. She lives in a trailer surrounded by trees and she didn't feel it was safe to stay there.

"When they say go, I go," said Webber, who's lived in the area for nearly two decades.

Webber said her son, who stayed behind in the trailer, told her a tree fell onto their trailer but didn't cause major damage.

Because of Hurricane Katrina, Webber said, she prefers to stay in shelters throughout major storms.

Webber is among the more than 300 people who arrived to shelters in Louisiana as Tropical Storm Barry approached landfall.

6:02 p.m. ET, July 13, 2019

Here's what we know so far about Barry

Barry made landfall this afternoon in Louisiana as a Category 1 hurricane, before being downgraded into a tropical storm. The system is now crawling north-northwest at 7 mph, brining extended downfalls that could prompt heavy flooding to the area.

Here's what you need to know about the storm:

  • Where it's going: Barry, now a tropical storm, is expected to weaken further as it travels northward into Louisiana. It's expected to become a tropical depression on Sunday. You can follow the storm's predicted path here.
  • Most of the storm is still in the gulf: Despite the center of the storm being over land, the vast majority of Barry’s thunderstorm activity remained over the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday evening.
  • Rain is the real threat: The rainfall that always posed the greatest threat, regardless of whether the storm was a hurricane or a tropical storm. Coastal storm surge had overtopped levees by midday Saturday, and extended downfalls that could prompt heavy flooding are still expected, forecasters have said.
  • Evacuations ordered: Some cities and parishes in Louisiana have issued mandatory evacuation orders, especially in low-lying areas and those outside public levee protection, along with voluntary evacuation warnings for other places, the governor said.
5:21 p.m. ET, July 13, 2019

95% of Tropical Storm Barry is still over the Gulf of Mexico

While the center of Barry made landfall this afternoon, much of the storm has yet to come on shore.

That means Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states should still brace for rain and possible flooding, CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers said.

Here's how he put it:

"95% of this storm is still in the Gulf of Mexico, even though the center of the storm is on land. The northern half of this storm has never had a lot of activity with it, but now as the storm moves to the north, guess where the southern half is going to be? Right over parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama."

Parts of Louisiana and Mississippi could see more than 20 inches of rain through Thursday, according to the latest forecast.

Watch more from Myers:

5:02 p.m. ET, July 13, 2019

Here's the 5 p.m. ET update from the National Hurricane Center

The National Hurricane Center just released its latest forecast for Tropical Storm Barry.

The storm — which has maximum sustained winds of 65 mph — is about 20 miles Southwest of Lafayette, Louisiana. Much of costal Louisiana is still under a tropical storm warning (Parts of the coast had been under a hurricane warning earlier today).

Here's a look at Barry's predicted path:

5:00 p.m. ET, July 13, 2019

More than 118,000 customers without power across Louisiana

At least 118,876 customers are without power across the state of Louisiana as of 5 p.m. ET.

Entergy Louisiana is reporting 74,229 customers without power and Cleco is reporting 44,647. 

  • Iberia Parish has over 21,200 customers without power, while St. Mary Parish has 17,481 outages, according to the Cleco outage map.
  • East Baton Rouge Parish has 14,845 customers without power while Terrebonne Parish has 14,650 without, according to Entergy Louisiana’s outage map.
4:39 p.m. ET, July 13, 2019

At least 330 households in Terrebonne Parish have been told to evacuate

At least 330 households are in the mandatory evacuation zone in Terrebonne Parish, according to Terrebonne Parish public information officer Mart Black.

Black said it is unclear how many residents are in that zone or if any have evacuated at this time.

The parish is expecting a storm surge of 4 to 6 feet in certain areas, Black said. 

4:27 p.m. ET, July 13, 2019

Barry is moving northward at 6 mph

Barry made landfall in Louisiana earlier this afternoon. It's currently moving northwest at 6 mph.

According to the latest forecasts, the storm is expected to reach the Shreveport area by Sunday afternoon or evening.

You can track the storm here.

3:54 p.m. ET, July 13, 2019

The Coast Guard is concerned about how much rain Barry could bring

Rain pours as cars drive through a road in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Friday
Rain pours as cars drive through a road in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Friday SETH HERALD/AFP/Getty Images

The United States Coast Guard remains “quite concerned” about Tropical Storm Barry despite the fact that the weather event was downgraded from a hurricane.

“It remains a very dangerous storm, particularly with regards to the amount of water that could be dropped in those areas with full river basins,” Rear Admiral Paul Thomas Commander Eighth Coast Guard District said.

The Coast Guard has been preparing for Barry and has plenty of resources and staffing ready to go as the storm passes through the Gulf Coast states.   

Thomas said the Coast Guard learned and implemented lessons from Hurricane Harvey, where they were not prepared nor planned for dealing with 60 inches of rain in Houston. The federal agency updated operational methods to better “track who's calling for help, where they're calling for help from, which units are closest, how we can dispatch them so we have a better common operational picture,” Thomas said.