Hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana remained without power and flooding was reported in the New Orleans area early Thursday, hours after Hurricane Francine slammed into the state's coastal region as a category 2 storm.

KEY FACTS

- The National Hurricane Center downgraded Francine to a Tropical Storm as it moved inland over Louisiana, bringing heavy rain to the state and its neighbors Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

- A heavy downpour after the storm prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flash flood warning for New Orleans and nearby Metairie and Kenner, which will remain in effect until Thursday morning.

- The Times-Picayune reported there was "widespread street flooding" in many neighborhoods across the city and nearby Jefferson Parish, while the police chief in Kenner said the city was facing its worst level of flooding since Hurricane Katrina.

- Authorities have urged residents of New Orleans to avoid driving on flooded roads until they are deemed safe in the morning.




BIG NUMBER

388,200. That is the total number of homes and businesses across Louisiana without power as of early Thursday, according to PowerOutage.US. An additional 52,000 homes and businesses in Mississippi are also facing an outage due to Francine.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

As Francine moves inland, a tropical storm warning is in effect across parts of the Louisiana coast and the Alabama/Florida border.
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