**Update**
Francine is now a tropical storm hours after making landfall in Louisiana. Francine, which was at one point a category two storm, hit Louisiana on Wednesday afternoon. The National Hurricane Center says maximum sustained winds are now estimated around 50 miles per hour. An estimated 300,000 residents are without power throughout southern Louisiana.
Hurricane Francine has made landfall in southern Louisiana.
The system made landfall near Eugene Island around 5 o'clock Wednesday afternoon as a Category 2 hurricane.
Storm surge, flooding rainfall, damaging winds and tornadoes have impacted Louisiana and other parts of the Gulf Coast and South. Major damage has been reported so far in Morgan City, as well as Houma. A hurricane warning is in effect along the Louisiana coast from Cameron to Grand Isle. Areas from Sabine Pass to the Mississippi-Alabama border are in a storm surge warning.
Multiple parishes in Louisiana issued mandatory evacuation orders ahead of the storm, as state and local leaders urged people to prepare.
The storm has had minimal impacts in Southeast Texas, but there were voluntary evacuation orders on the Bolivar Peninsula.
Francine is expected to weaken into a tropical storm this evening.