New Orleans from the effects of Post-Tropical Cyclone Arthur, the first named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season.
Arthur made landfall as a weak tropical storm on the Texas Gulf Coast Wednesday and slowly moved north-northeast overnight, dumping rain on southeast Louisiana.
Arthur was extremely disorganized, making the system hard to track. Rain total predictions for Louisiana cities varied every few hours Wednesday. National Hurricane Center forecasters and local meterologists consistently warned residents that Arthur would be dangerous despite its strength.
Here’s the latest from the New Orleans metro area Thursday morning.
Some in Jefferson Parish left stranded with flooded roads
Jefferson Parish saw some of the worst flooding Thursday, which left some drivers stranded.
Toby Forman stood with his grey Honda Civic, waiting for a tow truck as his car tilted into the canal at Veterans Boulevard near Transcontinental Drive Thursday morning. He was on his way to his 6 a.m. shift as a security guard for East Jefferson General Hospital when he noticed he could no longer tell how high the floodwaters were and decided to turn around.
Forman attempted to turn around on the grassy median, but ended up moving his car just enough into the canal that his tires lost traction. He was stuck for over an hour on the median alongside Lakeside Hospital nurse Clinisia London, who had parked next to him while she waited for floodwater to clear so she could head to her 12-hour shift.
"I'm very frustrated, because I drove all the way from home, I had to drop my kids off at my parents' home, and then get out here only to find out that i can't get to my job because my street is flooded," London said. "Now I'm losing out on pay and I'm literally right here by my job."
Toby Forman waits for a tow truck on Veterans Boulevard after accidentally driving into the canal Thursday morning.
BY LARA NICHOLSON | Staff writer
Mayor Moreno: NOLA ‘fared pretty well’
New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno said in an interview with WWL Louisiana Thursday morning that the city seems to have avoided major damage during the storm.
"We're getting very few reports of damage through 311," Moreno said, though she added that there are issues across the city and so she urged residents to use caution and to avoid getting on the roads until things are cleaned up.
"Overall for the city of New Orleans, compared to what other parishes are going through, we fared pretty well," Moreno said.
Some S&WB pumps went offline during storm despite new tech
The New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board during overnight storms from Post-Tropical Storm Arthur, a failure that a new $300 million power complex is designed to guard against.
The S&WB said in a press release that 25-hz power was cut to both drainage and tap water pumps for 30 to 60 minutes.
The press release did not say when or how the power lapse occurred. It also did not say which pump stations were affected, or if any street flooding occurred as a result.
The pumps had been fully restored as of 7:30 a.m., according to the S&WB.
Two injured in Jefferson Parish as damage reported, officials say
At least were injured when a suspected tornado hit an Avondale neighborhood, according to Rachel Strassel, spokesperson for Jefferson Parish.
In the 600 block of George Street in Avondale winds tossed a mobile home into a neighboring modular home, completely destroying the former, authorities said.
A man in the mobile home and a woman who lived in the modular home were injured. Both were in stable condition.
The suspected tornado destroyed four homes in the neighborhood and caused minor damage to 10 others. A gas leak that had been sealed by 9 a.m. led to evacuations in the neighborhood.
High winds also sheared the side off of Republic Services Recycling Center in the 1000 block of Harimaw Court in Metairie.
13 empty rail cars on the tracks inside the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railyard near L&A Road in Metairie also tipped over.
The privacy fence that ran the length of the golf course at Metairie Country Club along Airline Highway had been blown down and parish officials heard reports of downed tree limbs on Jefferson and Ochsner Medical Center employees reported damage to parked vehicles.
Residents survey damage off St. Bernard Avenue
An area of Lake Terrace at the corner of St. Bernard Avenue and Oak Street was hit particularly hard by the storm.
A little after 5:30 a.m., resident Kirk Derokey awoke to the sound of powerful winds rushing around his home.
After the worst of the storm passed, he saw outside that a palm tree in his backyard had snapped and the roof of his carport was torn off.
"It sounded like ice, like hail," said Derokey. "But at that point I didn't realize the roof had blown off."
Ashley Haspel, vice president of the Lake Terrace Property Owners Association, said her house shook as the worst of the storm passed.
"It was crazy when it came through. Crazy."
Tornado spotted in Metairie, New Orleans
The NHC confirmed a possible tornado in Metairie and said it was moving toward New Orleans near the City Park and Lakeview areas at 5:55 a.m. Damage was reported along Marco Drive, with a portion of the street being blocked by a fallen sign.
A tree was split in half and fell onto Paris Avenue in the Lake Terrace neighborhood.
The tornado warning for Orleans Parish expired at 6:15 a.m.
St. Charles and Jefferson Parishes were also under tornado warnings earlier in the morning. St. Tammany Parish, specifically Slidell and Eden Isle, was under a tornado warning that expired at 7:15 a.m.
There were early morning winds running between 90 and 100 miles per hours behind the Eden Isle station of Slidell’s St. Tammany Parish Fire District No.1, officials said.
Power outages
More than in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish by 9:45 a.m. At the peak outage perios earlier in the morning, over 22,000 people were without power.
Causeway bridge reopened
The Causeway bridge connected Jefferson Parish to the northshore over Lake Pontchartrain briefly closed due to weather hazards but reopened just after 6:30 a.m.
Flooding in Kenner, St. Charles Parish
At least one car was trapped by flash flooding on Loyola Drive in Kenner early Thursday morning. Kenner appeared to receive a brunt of the flooding from Arthur, with main thoroughares still covered with water at 7:30 a.m.
Kenner is urging residents to stay home and stay safe.
Kenner police confirmed that 50 to 70 cars were stalled in the water.
Summer school programs cancelled
NOLA Public Schools recommended that schools Thursday “out of an abundance of caution.” The school system did not say whether any campuses had been damaged in the storm.
Summer progams at Jefferson Parish and St. Bernard Parish public schools were also cancelled.
Damage in St. Tammany
There was heavy street flooding and downed trees around St. Tammany Parish early Thursday morning, according to St. Tammany Parish spokesperson Michael Vinsanau, who said crews were out responding to the effects of the heavy storms.
“Stay off the roads, stay home,” Vinsanau said. There was reported flooding around the parish, including on Falconer Drive in Covington, Florida Street in Mandeville and Gause Boulevard in Slidell. Vinsanau said the parish is continuing to monitor river levels, which he said could see further effects in the coming days as rain water from further north drains through St. Tammany.
Firefighters with St. Tammany Parish Fire District 4 in Mandeville also responded to a tree that fell on a house on Clausel St. in Mandeville and assisted one occupant, who was uninjured, according to Clint Ory, the director of St. Tammany’s homeland security and emergency operations. Red Cross has been notified and will assist the occupant.
Winds blew off a part of the Wyndham Hotel in Eden Isle near Slidell and also damaged nearby businesses and knocked down several trees.
Chris Drott, the front desk agent, used bungee cords to secure the hotel doors from the wind.
"It was blowing real hard," Drott said.
Firefighters also responded to several morning accidents, including an 18-wheeler turned over at an exit off Interstate-12.
Rain pours for hours
The heavy rains started around 1:30 a.m. and pounded the metro area for nearly five hours. The storms in Arthur also produced loud thunder and repetitive lightning.
Lightning flashes behind St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square as rain falls in New Orleans during Tropical Storm Arthur.in New Orleans, Thursday, June 18, 2026.
STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID GRUNFELD
Morning forecast update, rain totals
A flash flood warning for much of the New Orleans area expired at 9:15 a.m.
Between 3 and 6 inches of rain had fallen by 6:15 a.m. in the the New Orleans area and an additional 1 to 3 inches were possible into the evening with some cities potentially getting up to 10 inches, according to the NWS.
A flood watch was in also effect through Friday morning for most of southeast Louisiana and all of southwest and coastal Mississippi