Anxious Night Ahead For Gulf Coast Residents As Tropical Storm Cindy Heads For Land
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – It's an anxious night ahead for so many families as the effects of Tropical Storm Cindy continue to come ashore.
Heavy rains and high surf are pounding the gulf coast and causing flash flooding from Texas to the Florida panhandle.
In Biloxi, Mississippi a water spout came ashore. Its winds took down large tree branches.
"Terrible. And I thought it was the end of the world because it was so loud," said Biloxi resident Elidio Rosario.
And it's anything but easy in New Orleans, where at least four inches of rain flooded the streets.
"I'm asking the public to stay alert and be prepared," said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.
Voluntary evacuations are underway in Galveston.
Cindy is the biggest storm of the Atlantic hurricane season so far. Some areas are expected to receive a foot of rain before it moves north.
Cindy is also being blamed for the death of a 10-year-old boy who was vacationing with his family on the Alabama coast.
He died when a several hundred-pound log carried by storm surge struck him in the head as he was standing outside a condominium in Fort Morgan.
"The child sustained a very severe head injury, had to be pulled out from underneath the timber," said Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack.
The governors of Louisiana and Mississippi issued a state of emergency.
In Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards urged people across his state to take the storm seriously.