Tropical Storm Cindy Latest: Remnants To Bring Flash Flooding, Severe Weather

Tropical Storm Cindy, which has since been downgraded to a tropical depression, is still causing severe weather across the United States after making its landfall in Louisiana. According to the National Weather Service, remnants of the storm will bring heavy rain and flash flooding from the lower Mississippi Valley to the Mid-Atlantic.

The storm has been blamed for one death so far, a 10-year-old Missouri boy who was vacationing with his family in Alabama. The boy was struck by a log that a large wave washed ashore. As remnants from the storm moved north from the Gulf Coast, weather officials in Alabama were trying to determine the number of tornadoes that touched down in Alabama. At least one tornado just outside of Birmingham damaged several businesses and injured at least four people.

Forecasters also are checking damage at other locations in central and southern Alabama to determine whether tornadoes struck there. In Louisiana, the flooding was not as bad as expected, but Gov. John Bel Edwards warned that it was not over yet. In Cameron Parish, where the storm made its landfall Wednesday, there was 2 to 8 inches of rain and some flooded streets, though it was nothing compared to what residents in the area are used to.

"It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be," Heath Jinks, a local resident who saw the town of Holly Beach destroyed during Hurricane Rita in 2005, told the local ABC affiliate in Louisiana. Jinks said he felt relieved by Cindy's impact to the area.

The NWS says the storm is moving northeastward through the next couple of days and by Friday evening, Cindy will become post-tropical as it merges with a cold front.

"Showers and thunderstorms are expected to be widespread today from the lower Mississippi valley to the Northeast, as moisture from Cindy is transported northward ahead of the frontal boundary," the NWS writes in its forecast. "Severe thunderstorms and flash flooding will both continue to be possible in association with this system from portions of the lower Mississippi valley to the Mid-Atlantic through Friday night."

Farther south, there will be showers and storms from the southeast to the southern plains into Sunday, with locally heavy rain possible. The Midwest will get a reprieve with cooler temperatures, while the extreme heat across the southwestern United States will begin to wane into the weekend. Meanwhile the northwest will see the onset of potentially dangerous heat.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo by Gerald Herbert/Associated Press