Hermine Expected to Be Downgraded

There wasn’t much left to pack when the 1,500 residents of Grand Isle, La., were ordered to head for the mainland because of Tropical Storm Hermine: It was their third evacuation in as many weeks. Almost everyone had left town by late afternoon, as winds hit 25 mph and sea water from tides a foot higher than normal sloshed over roads. The state’s only inhabited barrier island, Grand Isle is just 5 feet above sea level, and the only road to the mainland floods before the island does. By late night, Hermine was about 75 miles south-southwest of New Orleans.