As predicted, Barry has reached hurricane strength before his eventual landfall along the south central Louisiana coast.
Barry was packing 75 mile per hour winds as of the Saturday 10 a.m. advisory with gusts up to 90, moving northwest at nine miles per hour.
"It should be noted that hurricane-force winds are limited to a small area east of the center, and that the upgrade to a hurricane means little in terms of the overall impacts from Barry," a National Hurricane Center forecaster noted in the discussion accompanying the advisory.
The NHC says hurricane force winds 45 miles east of the center, which was about 40 miles south of Lafayette, and tropical storm force winds extend outwards up to 175 miles.
While the surge continued to impact the Louisiana coast, major rains had yet to move inland for the southeastern part of the state, though that threat remains through the evening and into Sunday. Many of the stronger storms remained off the Louisiana coast and some of the strongest Saturday morning were further east along the Mississippi, Alabama and Florida panhandle coasts.
"The slow movement of Barry will result in a long duration heavy rainfall and flood threat from Sunday into next week, extending from the central Gulf Coast north across the Lower to Mid Mississippi Valley and portions of the Tennessee Valley," noted the National Hurricane Center.