Friday is the first weather alert day

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – The WAFB First Alert Storm Team declared Friday, May 17th FIRST ALARM WEATHER DAY which means a significant severe weather event is expected.

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SUMMARY

In most cases, a weather warning day is declared days before severe weather occurs when dangerous wind, hail or flooding is expected in our area.

Danger of flooding

A flood warning comes into effect for large parts of our region on Thursday at 7 p.m. and lasts until Saturday morning. While monitoring currently covers areas near and north of the highways, don’t be surprised if it expands further south.

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TIMED COORDINATION

Forecasts continue to consistently show this to be the first of potentially several rounds of storms to enter the area Thursday evening. There are still some timing differences, but storms could begin moving into western areas as early as this evening, with coverage increasing this evening into the early hours of Friday.

We should be prepared for some storms to produce widespread damaging winds and hail, although isolated tornadoes are not completely ruled out.

CLOCK vs. WARNING

PREPARATION

Make sure you have a way to be notified if an alert is issued for your location. Find out where your safe space is and move there quickly. Make sure your children know where this safe place is in case they are left home alone.

A safe house is the innermost room on the lowest floor of a foundation building. You want to stay away from windows and put up as many walls as possible between yourself and the outside of your home. This is usually a closet or bathroom. You’ll also want to keep something in this safe place that can protect your head, such as a bike helmet or a pillow. A mobile home is not a safe shelter.

Walk through your yard and secure any loose objects that could become flying debris or projectiles.

Move vehicles under shelter to avoid damage from debris and hail.

Make sure portable electronic devices are fully charged and have the latest version of the 9 news and weather apps so you can watch our live stream during power outages.

You can get weather updates throughout the day on WAFB, WAFB+, and WAFB’s YouTube and Facebook pages.

Be sure to download the WAFB First Alert Weather app here to receive video updates straight to your phone. You can also use our interactive radar to track the storm with the First Alert Weather Team.

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