Bernie Rayno was forecasting live on the AccuWeather Network as storm chaser Aaron Rigsby reported from the eyewall of landfalling Hurricane Francine.
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00:00Landfall is now imminent. Landfall is imminent across southwest Terrebonne Parish.
00:06We think that landfall is going to happen within the hour, as Brie talked about.
00:11We do have a Category 2 hurricane. I want to show you, are we going to go to the eyewall first, or are we going to go show the radar here?
00:19Okay, there's the radar, by the way, and this is southwest Terrebonne Parish, right in here.
00:24You can now see the northern eyewall has pushed through southwest Terrebonne Parish.
00:29By the way, our Tony Laubach is in Houma. He is now in the right front eyewall of Hurricane Francine.
00:37Now, when is landfall official? Well, draw the middle part of the eyewall.
00:42When half of the eyewall, or that middle part, comes right in toward Terrebonne Parish, that's when we have a landfall.
00:50So, let's take a look at the measurement here.
00:52So, you're talking about 17, 16 miles, and again, Francine moving to the northeast at 17 miles.
00:59So, again, landfall is imminent in southwestern Terrebonne Parish.
01:04Now, we have team coverage of Francine with crews all along the Gulf Coast.
01:08Let's get the latest from storm chaser Aaron Rigsby in Dulac, Louisiana.
01:13And my goodness, Aaron, you're in the thick of things right now.
01:16Educate me on exactly where Dulac is. We just lost Aaron for a second.
01:21That's not a surprise, given the conditions that he is dealing with right now here.
01:28So, again, do we have Aaron? There we have Aaron. All right, Aaron, tell me what's going on.
01:33Right now, we're on the main highway in Dulac, and right now, we have landfall at 17, 18 miles in Dulac.
01:42This is the storm surge you see right behind me. This is the main road.
01:45It has really come up here in the last 15 to 20 minutes.
01:48It continues to rapidly come in.
01:50And it's only going to get worse as you keep hearing that onshore flow associated from the hurricane.
02:00And, again, we are talking with Aaron Rigsby. He is in Dulac, Louisiana.
02:04So, again, how bad has things worsened here in the last half hour, 45 minutes, Aaron?
02:11Oh, it's rapidly gone downhill.
02:12It's gone downhill. We went from maybe 40 to 45, and now I can barely stand on my feet.
02:32And, Aaron, again, you're going to hunker down and stay safe as the center of circulation gets very close to you shortly.
02:40That's absolutely correct. I'm going to ride it out and get it.
02:45Okay, Aaron Rigsby.
02:47All right, Aaron Rigsby, again, in the eye of Hurricane Francine in Dulac, Louisiana.
02:52We'll be checking in with him as he hunkers down from Hurricane Francine.
02:59Again, Francine has strengthened in the last few hours.
03:04Maximum stain winds now at 100 miles per hour.