Gulf Coast Braces for flooding while Storm is building in possible tropical depression

The weather system that moved over the Panida in Florida on Wednesday showed a greater chance of becoming a tropical depression as it moves to the northern Gulf coast, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The system has a 40% chance of becoming a tropical depression while on Thursday it is west to the wave to Southeast -Louisiana, the federal agency said. The severity of its impact depends on how far the offshore travels, where the circumstances are ripe for a tropical depression before he reaches Louisiana. The tropical weather also influences Alabama and Mississippi.

Regardless of whether the system intensifies, heavy rain showers can cause flooding, officials warned.

New Orleans scraps 3 to 5 inches (8 to 13 centimeters) rain up to and including Saturday, but some areas could see no less than 10 centimeters (25 centimeters), especially near the coast, the National Weather Service said.

“Although a tropical depression on Thursday cannot be excluded near the coast, the most important focus remains the threat of heavy rain,” wrote the desk on X.

Volunteers and local chosen officials played music while they shot sand in bags to hand out residents in New Orleans on Wednesday morning in the Dryades YMCA.

“My street recently flooded when we got a little rain and so I just want to make sure I am proactive,” said Alex Trapps, resident of New Orleans, drove away with sandbags in his car.

Volunteers fill sandbags for residents of New Orleans, Wednesday, July 16, 2025, anticipating heavy rainfall from a tropical weather system that comes to the Gulf coast.

Stephen Smith/AP

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Stephen Smith/AP

The imminent threat in the southeast is helled this summer of a series of fatal floods. On Monday, Flash flood floods flooded and parts of New Jersey and claimed two lives. And at least 132 people were killed in flood water that overwhelmed Texas Hill Country on the fourth July.

The system that percoles over Florida is called Dexter when it becomes a named storm. Six weeks in the Atlantic Hurricane season, which runs from 1 June to 30 November, there have been three called Tropical Storms – Andrea, Barry and Chantal – but no hurricanes.

Chantal landed last week in South Carolina, and the remains caused floods in North Carolina in which an 83-year-old woman died when her car was swept from a rural road.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association said in May that there was a 60% chance that there will be more storms this hurricane season than in recent years on average.

The currently developing weather system is expected to move completely inland towards the end of the week.

South – Louisiana – A region that is all too familiar with the potentially devastating effects of floods – is expected to be hit on Thursday and then affected.

Erika Mann, CEO of the Dryades YMCA, said that local chosen officials succeeded in organizing the distribution of the storm supply within one day after the threat increasing.

“We open our doors and help the community when the community is in need,” said Mann.

Some residents who came to “jumped out of their cars and helped them. And it simply represents what New Orleans is about. We’ll be in a crisis together,” Mann said.