With hours to go until Hurricane Francine makes landfall in Louisiana, "the time to evacuate has now passed," Jacques Thibodeau, the director of the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said at a news conference.

The National Hurricane Center said Francine gained hurricane status about 350 miles southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana.

The peak of Atlantic hurricane season has arrived, and, right on schedule, a strong tropical storm is bearing down on the Gulf Coast. The National Hurricane Center is calling for Francine to make landfall in Louisiana as a hurricane Wednesday before spreading flooding rains and the chance of tornadoes across the Mississippi Valley and Deep South.