LOUISIANA residents have boarded up buildings as they braced for torrential rain and strong winds from a strengthening Tropical Storm Barry.
The storm threatened millions as it churned a path to land and tested efforts to guard against flooding since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans 14 years ago.
Officials predicted Barry would make landfall yesterday morning near Morgan City as the first hurricane of the season, with the edges of the storm already
lashing Louisiana with rain and leaving some coastal roads underwater.
As dawn approached yesterday, more than 45,000 people in southern Louisiana had lost power.
Though expected to be a weak hurricane, barely over the 74mph wind speed threshold, it threatened disastrous flooding across a swathe of the Gulf Coast.
The storm was expected to inflict the most damage on Louisiana and parts of Mississippi, with wind and rain affecting more than 3 million people.
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