Tropical Storm Bertha has made landfall along the Louisiana coast, coming ashore in St. Bernard Parish just southeast of New Orleans. Officials said the system arrived a little further north than forecasters had expected, moving into St. Bernard Parish rather than Plaquemines Parish, and that the shift did not change the broadly reassuring outlook for the region as the storm pushed inland.
Forecasters said the good news was that dry air and wind shear had continued to do their work, and that Bertha would weaken steadily as it moved over land. The combination of dry air, wind shear and the interaction with land was expected to take most of the punch out of the storm, so tropical storm force winds were not projected to reach very far into the state before beginning to subside.
In and around metro New Orleans, officials said conditions would turn breezy and at times downright windy, but that the winds should not be very problematic. The main energy of the storm was described as sitting well to the southwest of the center of circulation, a setup that meteorologists said pointed toward minimal wind impacts for the New Orleans area as the storm came ashore.
Rain, rather than wind, remained the larger concern. Forecasters warned of pockets of heavy rain both on the day of landfall and continuing through Thursday on the backside of the system as it pushed to the west. They said pockets of flooding would be possible, particularly in those places that routinely flood, and that officials would keep watching for additional rain bands still to move through the area.
Along the coast, the threat from water was expected to stay within manageable limits. Officials said they were watching for some coastal flooding and a little bit of storm surge, but that in most cases the surge would be three feet or less. That level, they noted, is something coastal communities in the area see frequently enough to be prepared for, and it was not expected to overwhelm those neighborhoods.
Governor Jeff Landry, speaking during the briefing, thanked the public servants who had been working since Sunday to prepare the state for the storm. He said officials were grateful that Bertha appeared to be an event that would not require activating many of the services that a more dangerous storm would have demanded, while stressing that crews had everything in place had the storm turned more serious.
Even so, the governor and forecasters urged residents not to let their guard down. They noted that the backside of the storm's circulation, with rain bands reaching as far east as the Florida panhandle, still had to move through before the region could fully exhale. Landry reminded Louisianans that responsibility also falls on them to be prepared, pointing people to the state's get a game plan resources ahead of the rest of hurricane season.