File:Francine over the United States (MODIS 2024-09-14).jpg

English: Hurricane Francine made landfall on Wednesday, September 11, at 6:00 p.m. EDT (5:00 p.m. local time) about 30 miles south-southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana. After approaching the coast as a Category 1 hurricane, Francine intensified over warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico to Category 2 strength just before landfall. At the time Francine moved over the Louisiana coast, it carried maximum sustained winds of 100 miles per hour (161 km/h). Francine brought damaging wind, intense rain and high surf to southern Louisiana.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a rare flash flood emergency—the most severe flood alert—for New Orleans after 6-8 inches of rain swamped the city and surrounding region. The Sheriff of Lafourche Parish, located just east of landfall, reported 26 people were rescued from rising waters on September 11 alone. Power was knocked out for about 450,000 people in Louisiana and numerous trees toppled as severe wind gusts whipped the state.

Francine lost her windy punch quickly over land, becoming a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour (112.6 km/h) by 9:00 p.m. EDT (8:00 p.m. local time)—only hours after landfall. Despite the decreased wind, intense rain continued to fall as the storm moved northward over Mississippi, where it became a post-tropical depression on September 13. The Mississippi Emergency Management Association (MEMA) reported that four homes, one business, and one bridge had been damaged. At least 11,000 customers lost power in that state, according to Entergy, an electrical energy provider. Alabama authorities also reported flash flooding, water rescues, and power outages as the edge of the storm swept across that state.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of a much-weakened Francine sprawling across the southern United States on September 12, 2024. The center of the storm was spinning over northern Mississippi, but convective bands which were carrying rain and wind, stretched from eastern Oklahoma and across the coast of South Carolina and from Florida to southern Iowa.