Disaster record
Hurricane Francine (September 2024) — Louisiana
Six months after the disaster 0 deaths $1.3 billion
Summary
Francine intensified over unusually warm Gulf waters and made U.S. landfall in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, on September 11, 2024, as a Category 2 hurricane. A New Orleans flash-flood emergency, hundreds of thousands of power outages, and same-day AP coverage made it a distinct national disaster cycle between Beryl (July) and Helene (late September).
Contemporary AP landfall coverage and FEMA DR-4817 reporting through 2024-12-11 reported no U.S. deaths. This pass does not use the later NHC Tropical Cyclone Report (10 March 2025).
No U.S. fatalities in contemporaneous wire. Early industry loss ranges (CoreLogic insured ~$1.5 billion; Moody's ~$2 billion+; AccuWeather much higher) reflect mixed scopes and are not used as a headline dollar figure before the six-month NCEI pass.
NHC Tropical Cyclone Report (10 March 2025) citing NOAA NCEI: no reports of casualties associated with Francine. NHC lists four injuries in Louisiana and Mississippi; NCEI Storm Events (New Orleans/Baton Rouge zone) lists six direct injuries. Eighteen southeastern Louisiana emergency-department visits for carbon monoxide exposure after the storm.
Authoritative anchor: NHC Tropical Cyclone Report dated 10 March 2025 — one day before this cutoff — citing NOAA NCEI estimate of $1.3 billion in U.S. damage to homes, vehicles, businesses, and other infrastructure. Peak power outages about 500,000 across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Moody's and AccuWeather broader economic-loss estimates remain excluded — wider interruption scope than NCEI property damage.
Scientific attribution
AP and Yale Climate Connections documented unusually warm Gulf waters along Francine's path. Yale (Sept 9), citing Climate Central's Ocean Shift Index, said human-caused warming made that western Gulf warmth up to 100 times more likely. E&E News (Sept 13) treated rapid intensification just before landfall as a climate signature. No World Weather Attribution storm-specific rainfall or wind percentages as of 2026-08-25 — warmer-water / rapid-intensification background, not a sole-cause percentage.
Sep 11, 2024 · Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana landfall; flash flooding, surge, and wind across southeastern Louisiana into Mississippi and Alabama · hurricane
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Democratic framing
About these tallies
“Core Democratic Officials reviewed” shows how many of the 53 Core Democratic Officials have been examined for this disaster. Scoring rules: Methods.
Democratic framing
Summary
Sen. Peter Welch named Hurricane Francine on the Senate floor the evening of September 11, 2024, while the storm was moving onshore: “Louisiana right now is bracing for the worst as Hurricane Francine moves onshore.” That is event yes. A later sentence in the same speech — “The entire country has been hammered by climate change and by these weather events” — is disaster-aid framing for the country, not a climate-causation link to Francine’s intensity or Gulf warmth. It is not Republican climate obstruction.
Louisiana has no Democratic U.S. senators. House Democratic leadership, Senate Democrats outside Vermont, climate hawks other than this Welch floor, and DNC chair Jaime Harrison were reviewed at the project’s usual standard (targeted leadership and climate-hawk passes; remainder low-confidence aggregate no). Sanders’s September 11 CNN appearance was campaign/economy, not Francine. President Biden’s disaster declaration is not in the core tally. Helene, two weeks later, is a separate record.
Statements
- Peter Welch (U.S. Senator (D-VT)) — Sep 11, 2024
Republican framing
The Louisiana congressional delegation — Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, Speaker Mike Johnson, Leader Steve Scalise, and the Louisiana House members — wrote President Biden on September 12, 2024, in support of Gov. Jeff Landry’s request for an expedited major disaster declaration after Francine’s September 11 Category 2 landfall. Cassidy’s office published the letter September 13. Relief and Stafford Act framing; no climate attribution.
Rep. Troy Carter (D-LA-02) co-signed the same letter and toured damage by Coast Guard helicopter on September 13 (NOLA.com); he is not in the Democratic core tally. President Biden’s FEMA-4817-DR major disaster declaration is dated September 16 and is non-core. No Trump-style FEMA-disinformation wave accompanied Francine the way Helene and Milton later saw.
Statements
- Bill Cassidy (U.S. Senator (R-LA)) — Sep 12, 2024
Sources
- Hurricane Francine Tropical Cyclone Report — NOAA / National Hurricane Center
- 4817-DR-LA Initial Notice — Hurricane Francine major disaster declaration — FEMA
- Cassidy, Louisiana Delegation Urge Biden to Approve Major Disaster Declaration in Response to Hurricane Francine — Office of U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy
- Francine's winds accelerated right before landfall, revealing a climate signature — E&E News by POLITICO
- Congressional delegation seeks major disaster declaration — The Times-Picayune / NOLA.com
- Welch: “We can’t expect our communities—those who are ravaged by disaster—to fight alone.” — Office of Sen. Peter Welch
- Letter to President Biden on Hurricane Francine — Office of Sen. John Kennedy
- Hurricane Francine makes landfall in Louisiana as Category 2 storm — Associated Press
- Warm oceans strengthened Hurricane Francine and could power more — Associated Press
- Hurricane watches go up for Louisiana as Tropical Storm Francine forms — Yale Climate Connections