Most people riding out the storm still had electricity when they woke Saturday morning. “.We had to rescue multiple people from their flooded cars, along with a woman, who was on her way to the hospital, possibly going into labour.” “A few low lying areas are still inundated with water and cannot be reached” with regular vehicles, Slidell police said in a Facebook post. Slidell police said the flooding had largely receded by daybreak, after swamping as many as 50 cars and trucks with water. Residents of Slidell, Louisiana, reported flooded streets and water in some neighbourhoods as the storm pushed onshore overnight. It'll rain really really hard for a few minutes and slack up for a few minutes," said Glen Brannan of the Mobile County, Alabama, Emergency Management Agency early Saturday. “We've got little squalls running through. In Alabama, possible tornadoes damaged a fishing pier on Dauphin Island and flipped a mobile home near Brewton, said Jason Beaman, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Mobile.įorecasters said Claudette could dump 5 to 10 inches (12 to 25 centimetres) of rain in the region, with isolated accumulations of 15 inches (38 centimetres) possible. “We're just thankful it happened after sunrise,” not overnight as people slept. “Nobody's hurt,” said Sarah Whitfield, spokeswoman for Santa Rosa County, where the Florida homes were damaged. Residents of Pace, Florida, called 911 to report a possible twister that tore the roofs off two homes and damaged at least three others. Tornado warnings were issued from the Mississippi coast to the western Florida panhandle. The heaviest rains were far from the centre, near the Mississippi-Alabama state line. It was north of the city three hours later, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (72 kph) as the storm plodded to the northeast at 12 mph (19 kph). The National Hurricane Centre declared Claudette organized enough to qualify as a named storm at 4:00 am Saturday, well after the storm's centre of circulation had come ashore southwest of New Orleans. NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) - Tropical Storm Claudette dumped heavy rain across the US Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida as it chugged inland Saturday, triggering flash floods and tornado warnings along its soggy course across the Southeast. Motorists navigate a flooded Gause Boulevard in Slidell, La, late Friday, June 18, 2021, as a tropical disturbance neared the Louisiana shore.