Cindy Brings Flood Of Trouble To Gulf Coast
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BILOXI, MS (CBSMiami) - Tropical Storm Cindy has now been downgraded to a tropical depression and is leaving parts of the Gulf Coast underwater. Several states are at risk of flash flooding.
Cindy made landfall early Thursday morning as a tropical with sheets of pounding rain and powerful winds in southwest Louisiana.
The storm dumped as much as 10 inches of rain along the Gulf Coast, forcing some drivers to abandon cars on the washed out roads.
"I was gonna drive through it but it was a little too deep to go in there with the car," said Lakeview resident Rick Owens.
Cindy's whipping winds caused trouble as far east as Mobile, Alabama where they toppled a tree into a home.
"I'm thankful nobody got hurt, the stuff in the house is just stuff, it can be replaced," said JaMarcus Forrest.
In Florida's Panhandle, a tornado touched down and destroyed a ball field and uprooted a tree which flattened a truck.
At least one death is already being blamed on the storm, a 10-year-old boy on an Alabama beach was struck and killed yesterday by a log thrown ashore by the storm surge.
"The child sustained a very severe head injury, had to be pulled out from underneath the timber," said Baldwin Co., Alabama Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack.
Cindy began hitting parts of the region hard Wednesday, toppling trees in Biloxi, Mississippi and flooding low-lying areas.
With up to 15-inches of rain predicted for some spots the National Hurricane Center has issued a warning of potentially life-threatening flash floods.
The storm system is predicted to take a turn east later today hitting the mid-Atlantic coast with heavy rain by the weekend.
