Water from the flooded lagoon at Audubon Park surrounds a park bench early Wednesday afternoon following heavy rains in the morning. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
Heavy rainfall Wednesday morning brought as much as eight inches of rain to the streets in three hours, city officials said, out pacing the city’s drainage system and causing flooding across many Uptown neighborhoods from Carrollton to the Lower Garden District.
Tornado and flash-flood warnings were issued throughout the morning, until the rain began clearing closer to noon. Residents shared social-media photos of kayakers on Magazine Street in the Lower Garden District and Irish Channel, as well as on Freret Street, while many side streets along Carrollton Avenue were covered in water too deep to drive through safely.
“Residents are asked to stay off of the roads until water recedes,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s office said in a news release. “As of 11 a.m., standing water remained on many roads throughout the city and the National Weather Service extended a Flash Flood Warning through 1:45 p.m.”
More dangerous weather is expected in New Orleans through the weekend as a storm system off the Florida Panhandle continues to develop into a likely tropical depression.
“Conditions appear favorable for this storm to strengthen to a hurricane as it approaches the central Gulf Coast by this weekend,” said National Hurricane Center meteorologists in an update at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
0710 NHC 10a update
