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Tropical Storm Cindy has sustained winds of 60 mph as it moves northwest across the Gulf of Mexico.
Landfall projections bring it to the Texas-Louisiana state line by early Thursday morning, but we will see impacts before then. A tropical storm warning and a flash flood watch is in effect for our entire region.
Winds will be gusting to tropical storm force this morning in parts of south central Louisiana this morning, and extend into southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas this afternoon. Rain bands will be moving across the region today and tomorrow, producing 3 to 5 inches of rain. If a rain band ends up sitting in one location, it has the potential to produce as much as 10 inches of rain.
Some street flooding is expected across the region due to the poor drainage conditions due to the saturated grounds and above normal tides. At the coast, tides will run 1.5 to 3 feet above normal today and Thursday.
This will cause some street and property flooding in and near Sabine Pass, including sections of Highway 87 between Sabine Pass and Port Arthur, low areas in Bridge City, parts of Highway 82 west and east of Holly Beach, downtown Cameron, Pecan Island, Intracoastal City, Delcambre, Cypremort Point, and Burns Point.
There will be a slight risk for tornadoes Wednesday and Thursday across the region.

Update: The Louisiana State Police has cancelled the Level II Endangered/Missing Child Media Advisory for Easton Alfred and Endie Dacosta. They have been located and are safe. The investigation is ongoing.

IBERIA PARISH — The Louisiana State Police has issued a Level II Endangered/Missing Child Media Advisory on behalf of the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office for seven-year-old Easton Alfred and two-year-old Endie Dacosta of New Iberia.
Easton is a white male child with black hair.  He is approximately 4’0” tall and weighs about 40 to 50 pounds.  He was last seen wearing boxer shorts and a T-shirt.  He was barefoot.  Endie is a white female child with light brown/blonde hair and hazel eyes.  She is approximately 2’6” tall and weighs about 30 pounds.
Easton Alfred and Endie Dacosta are believed to be with their mother, Raven Decosta.  Raven Dacosta is a 30-year-old white female with long brown hair and brown eyes.  She has a dark complexion.  She is approximately 5’7” tall and weighs about 140 pounds.
Raven Dacosta is believed to be traveling with the children in a beige 2002 Toyota Sienna minivan.  The children were last seen on Tuesday, June 20, 2017, at approximately 9:00 a.m. with Raven Dacosta in the 5100 block of LA Hwy. 14 in between New Iberia and Delcambre.
The license plate on the 2002 Toyota Sienna minivan is “101AQB.”
Law enforcement has reason to believe Easton and Endie are in imminent danger.  The public is asked not to approach Raven Dacosta.
Anyone having information as to the whereabouts of Easton Alfred, Endie Dacosta and/or Raven Dacosta should immediately call 911, the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office at 337-369-3711 or Louisiana State Police Sgt. Stacey Pearson of the Louisiana Clearinghouse for Missing & Exploited Children at 337-962-2605 or stacey.pearson@la.gov.

The Vermilion Parish school system is not taking chances when it comes to preparing for high waters in Vermilion Parish.
There are five schools with a flood protection wall around each school.
On Monday, the school system emergency plan kicked into effect and personnel were busying closing flood gates at each school.
The newest schools to get a flood protection wall, Erath High and Erath Middle, are being closed for the first time. Contractors, who have about 99 percent of work complete, were making sure all 12 gates were closed before a tropical system makes landfall in Louisiana. By this morning, the schools are prepared.
“We are taking a proactive measure,” said School Superintendent Jerome Puyau. “We are training our workers. We have teams assigned to every school. We are closing every gate except for one at each school.”
It takes around 15 minutes to have all of the gates closed at each school.
Schools with flood walls are: SeventhWard/Forked Island Elementary, E. Broussard Elementary, Erath High, Erath Middle and Dozier Elementary.
The August flooding was a life lesson for the school system. The good news is that no school with a flood protection wall flooded despite all of the rain. The bad news is that not all of the schools’ flood gates were closed.
“We built the flood gates, but we have had to test them,” he said. “The first time we did, everyone thought someone else would close them.”
A system, the Flood Crisis Plan for Flooding, was put in place. It assigned teams to be in charge of each school. If there is an order to close the gates, the team takes care of it.
“We are taking no chances and wondering who is going to close the gates,” he said. “We don’t want that to happen. We are taking a proactive approach.”
This will be the first test for Erath High and Erath Middle School. After a year, the wall surrounds the two schools.
With the gates closed, water is expected to remain on the school grounds. An impressive drainage system was built under the EMS and EHS. The water is expected to be pumped out of the school ground and pumped into Bayou Tigre located about 100 yards from the football stadium.
Puyau said while these five schools are protected, he is worried about other parish schools flooding due to heavy rain. With the historical flood in August, Kaplan schools flooded. He contacted Kaplan principals and requested they begin lifting things are the ground in case it floods again.
“We are doing all we can do before the rain arrives,” Puyau said.
Puyau said he plans to leave most of the gates closed until the start of school.

At around 3:30 p.m. on Friday, a house on Laura Street (south of the Sportsman) caught fire and burned.
No one was injured in the house fire.
Fighting the house fire, located outside of the city limits, were the Abbeville fire department, along with volunteer fire departments from Henry, Erath, Delcambre, Kaplan and Seventh Ward. They all brought their pumper trucks for water.