New Orleans floods ahead of possible hurricane

Jessica Parker

Residents from Houston to Mobile, Alabama, are bracing for a possible hurricane. There is a storm system developing in the Gulf of Mexico that could escalate to hurricane classification by the weekend.

As the low-pressure system moves closer to land it will meet warm, open waters that will fuel the storm’s intensity, CNN meteorologist Haley Brink said.

A tropical storm is an area of thunderstorms that produces a circular wind flow with winds from 39 to 73 miles per hour. With a lower wind speed, it would be a tropical depression. Higher, and it would be a hurricane.

Regardless of the classification this system develops into, both Louisiana and Mississippi are forecast to see very heavy rain — more than a foot in some places, Brink said.

This article originally appeared here