Terrifying video shows huge waterspout spinning high as deluge of floods hits New Orleans
FRIGHTENING footage shows a huge waterspout over Lake Pontchartrain, New Orleans, as the area prepares for the “life-threatening” Tropical Storm Barry to make landfall.
Hurricane Barry: HUGE waterspout spotted over New Orleans
New Orleans residents have been warned to shelter in their homes and stock up supplies as the “dangerous and life-threatening” Tropical Storm Barry nears. A horrifying video shows a water spout stretching high into the clouds as the area was hit with flooding. Social media users shared the shocking footage on Twitter, with one commenting: “What could possibly go wrong?”
Another said: “Not a good sign!”
A third added: “That is a huge one!!”
A fourth wrote: “Alien tentacles. It’s the end of the world.”
The spout formed as New Orleans is already saturated by torrential rains which flooded streets on Wednesday.
READ MORE: Hurricane Barry spaghetti models: Will tropical storm hit New Orleans?
Tropical Storm Barry will likely strengthen into a hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Centre, with winds of at least 74 mph (119 km) by the time it reaches the central Louisiana coast on Saturday.
National Weather Service meteorologist Benjamin Schott warned a news conference: "Tropical Storm Barry is a dangerous and life-threatening storm.
"Record flooding will be possible."
Officials canceled a Sunday night concert by the Rolling Stones. Residents were ordered to evacuate some nearby areas, but the New Orleans mayor said no evacuations were ordered from the low-lying city which strengthened its flood defences after devastating Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Hurricane Barry: Flood warnings in place as storm approaches
Louisiana Governor Jon Bel Edwards said at an afternoon news conference: ”Nobody should take this storm lightly just because it's supposed to be a category 1 when it makes landfall."
Category 1 is the lowest ranking of hurricane strength on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.
Barry is forecast to bring a coastal storm surge into the mouth of the Mississippi River that winds through the heart of New Orleans, pushing its crest to 19 feet (5.79m) on Saturday.
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That would be the highest since 1950 and dangerously close to the top of the city's levees.
However, officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which maintains the levees, insisted that no significant breaching of the 20-foot-tall levees in New Orleans was likely.
Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for areas of Plaquemines Parish beyond the levees southeast of the city and for low-lying communities in Jefferson Parish, to the southwest.
Barry has shut more than 1 million barrels of offshore oil production and the coastal evacuation orders forced one refinery to halt operations.
New Orleans residents who plan to ride out the storm flocked to supermarkets for bottled water, ice, snacks and beer, thronging grocery stores in such numbers that some ran out of shopping carts.
Throughout the city, motorists left cars parked on the raised median strips of roadways hoping the extra elevation would protect them from flood damage.