NEW ORLEANS -- A boy on an Alabama beach was struck and killed by a log that was washed ashore by a storm surge from Tropical Storm Cindy, which spun bands of severe weather ashore from the Florida panhandle to east Texas as it churned ever closer to the Gulf Coast.
Baldwin County sheriff's Capt. Stephen Arthur said witnesses reported the 10-year-old boy from Missouri was standing outside a condominium in Fort Morgan when the log, carried in by a large wave, struck him. Arthur said the child was vacationing with his family from the St. Louis area and that relatives and emergency workers tried to revive him. He wasn't immediately identified.
It was the first known fatality from Cindy. The storm formed Tuesday and was expected to make landfall sometime today.
Rough seas also led to the rescue of a shrimp trawler in danger of sinking off the coast of Texas. The U.S. Coast Guard said the trawler Footprint was about 80 miles southeast of Galveston when the crew radioed that the vessel was taking on water faster than onboard pumps could clear it. A helicopter crew lowered an extra pump that enabled the shrimp boat crew to clear enough water to stay afloat. A Coast Guard cutter escorted the vessel to Freeport, Texas.
Cindy was expected to arrive ashore near the Louisiana-Texas line, but the severe weather extended far to the east. National Weather Service forecasters estimated it had dumped 2 to 10 inches of rain on various spots along the Gulf Coast from south Louisiana to the Florida panhandle as of Wednesday. And more rain was on the way.
Alek Krautmann at the weather service office in Slidell, La., said more moisture was heading in from the Gulf on Wednesday evening.
"There were plenty of breaks today, but it's filled in a little more this afternoon," he said.
Coastal roads and some buildings flooded. There were several reports of possible short-lived tornadoes.
In Gulfport, Miss., Kathleen Bertucci said heavy rainfall Wednesday sent about 10 inches of water into her business, Top Shop, which sells and installs granite countertops.
"It's pretty disgusting, but I don't have flood insurance because they took me out of the flood zone," said Bertucci, whose store is near a bayou. "We're just trying to clean everything up and hope it doesn't happen again."
In nearby Biloxi, a waterspout moved ashore Wednesday morning. Harrison County Emergency Management Director Rupert Lacy said there were no injuries but that fences, trees and power lines were damaged.
Storms also downed trees in the Florida panhandle. Fort Walton Beach spokesman Jo Soria said fallen trees hit houses and cars in what she called "pockets of wind damage" in two or three residential neighborhoods.
The White House said President Donald Trump was briefed on the storm Wednesday by homeland security adviser Tom Bossert.
Also Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, like his Alabama counterpart a day earlier, declared a state of emergency. He was among authorities stressing that the storm's danger wasn't limited to the coast.
In Knoxville, Tenn., the power-generating Tennessee Valley Authority said it was drawing down water levels on nine lakes it controls along the Tennessee River and its tributaries in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky, anticipating heavy runoff from Cindy's rains once the storm moves inland. The Tennessee Valley Authority manages 49 dams to regulate water, provide power and help control downstream flooding.
The storm was centered Wednesday night about 105 miles south of Lake Charles, La., and had top sustained winds of 50 mph. A tropical storm warning was in effect along the coast from San Luis Pass, Texas, to Grand Isle, La.
In Alabama, streets were flooded and beaches were closed on the barrier island of Dauphin Island. Some roads were covered with water in the seafood village of Bayou La Batre, but Becca Caldemeyer still managed to get to her bait shop at the city dock. If only there were more customers, she said.
"It's pretty quiet," Caldemeyer said by phone from Rough Water Bait and Tackle. "Nobody can cast a shrimp out in this kind of wind."
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered the State Operations Center to raise its readiness level. He also activated four Texas Task Force One boat squads and two Texas Military Department squads of five vehicles each to respond to any weather-related emergencies.
Information for this article was contributed by Janet McConnaughey, Melinda Deslatte, Jeff Amy, Jay Reeves, Kimberly Chandler, Emily Wagster and Brendan Farrington of The Associated Press.
A Section on 06/22/2017