Several media outlets are reporting that Cindy, a tropical storm that has been soaking the Gulf Coast states since Thursday morning, has weakened into a tropical depression.
According to The Weather Channel, remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy brought heavy rain and localized flooding to the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys Friday, a day after the storm made landfall in Louisiana. In anticipation of heavy rainfall from the storm, authorities in Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia prepared for possible flooding.
Meanwhile, AccuWeather is reporting that Cindy will continue to release “torrential rainfall” and raise the risk of flooding even as the storm pushes well inland over the United States into this weekend.
While there will be a continued risk of a couple of tornadoes being spawned by locally severe storms, flooding will be the most far-reaching impact, According to the AccuWeather report.
"The most likely time for torrential downpours and urban flooding from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia and New York City is late Friday night into early Saturday," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Dombek in a written statement.
According to the National Hurricane Center, now Tropical Depression Cindy is expected to produce two to four inches of rain with locally higher amounts from Northern Louisiana into Western Tennessee and into Kentucky and the Central Appalachians. These rains will continue to enhance the flash flood threat across these regions, some of which could be life threatening, especially across Louisiana and Southeast Arkansas.
Heavy downpours were expected in East Texas, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, according to CNN. More than 6 million people remain under tornado watches, an area covering New Orleans and points north into central Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
According to CNN, Cindy was responsible for one death – 10-year-old Nolan McCabe, who was killed when storm surge washed a large log ashore and struck him. He was on vacation from St. Louis with his family, police said.
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