Hogan Street in Berwick is blocked off Monday afternoon from Tournament Boulevard due to flooding. Police put barricades in front of several town streets to keep vehicles from traveling in high water. (The Daily Review/Zachary Fitzgerald)
(Updated) Tri-City got 5 inches of rain Monday
Forecasters were predicting the Tri-City area to get about 6 inches of rain Tuesday, which is slightly more than the area got Monday, said Duval Arthur, St. Mary Parish emergency preparedness director.
The area got roughly 5 inches of rainfall Monday. The Morgan City area should average 2 to 6 inches of rain each day during the next three-day period, said Meteorologist Andy Tingler of the National Weather Service’s Lake Charles office.
A chance of rain will stay in the area through the weekend, Tingler said.
There will be about a 70 percent chance of rain Thursday, 50 percent Friday and 40 percent Saturday and Sunday, Tingler said.
Arthur expects the area to be able to handle 6 inches of rainfall without many problems, assuming the rain doesn’t fall all at once. As of Tuesday morning, there were no tornado watches or warnings in effect, he said.
“That’s what really scared us yesterday,” Arthur said.
The National Weather Service told local officials that there was a “very slight” chance of tornadoes for the region.
School board officials decided to close schools Tuesday as a precautionary measure, and officials were going to make a decision Tuesday whether to hold school Wednesday, Arthur said.
Local officials received reports of tornado sightings in east and west St. Mary Parish, Arthur said. But, in both cases, the two people who reported the sightings were the only people who contacted emergency officials to say they saw the tornadoes, Arthur said. The activity could have been a waterspout or something else, he said.
“We don’t think it was a tornado,” Arthur said.
The National Weather Service computers in Lake Charles didn’t pick any circular motion in the area, Arthur said.
Tingler said the weather service didn’t confirm any tornadic activity in St. Mary Parish.
Berwick police temporarily closed a few streets Monday due to flooding. But Bayou Vista, Morgan City and Patterson didn’t have to close any streets, according to officials.
Arthur attributes the lack of street flooding in the area to drainage improvements made during the past few years.