Tropical Storm Cristobal hits Louisiana, but will weaken into depression in hours – NHC

A storm causing heavy rain and coastal flooding in the southern state of Louisiana is expected to weaken into a tropical depression in “the next several hours,” the US National Hurricane Center said on Monday.

Tropical Storm Cristobal was packing maximum sustained winds of 50mph (80km/h) when it hit the southeast coast of the state on Sunday, the center said earlier. However, in its latest update at 06:00 GMT, the NHC said the storm’s wind speeds had weakened to around 40mph (64km/h).

Cristobal, the third named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, is expected to dump as much as 38cm (15in) of rain in some places near the coast. It’s forecast to move north into Arkansas and Missouri later on Monday and into Tuesday, before heading into Wisconsin and then arriving in Canada on Wednesday, AFP reports.

President Trump said he would be signing an emergency declaration for Louisiana to free up federal aid.