“No one should take this storm lightly. It has already claimed the lives of at least 20 people,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said Friday. “We do want people to be very, very cautious and to not take this storm for granted.”
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the core of the Category 1 hurricane was located at 7 a.m. CDT Saturday about 245 miles (395 kilometers) south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Top sustained winds were clocked at 85 mph (135 kph).
A hurricane warning is in effect from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to the Alabama-Florida border and also included metropolitan New Orleans nearby Lake Pontchartrain.