As heavy rain turned staircases into waterfalls and the flood waters forced some to kayak rather than drive, Stephanie McCurdy sat in her hotel and waited.

“We woke up to a tornado warning,” she said. “Which we’re used to being from Kansas. But no one seemed by the tornado warning even in the hotel.”

The Wichita realtor is in New Orleans for a work conference but she’d be seeing such a big storm in the big easy.

“If we do have to mandatory evacuate, we just have to go up north to northern Louisiana since they won’t have any flights out,” she said.

The list of flight delays grew throughout the day Wednesday and roads surrounding her hotel are under water. So she fears she stuck in the area until the storm passes. The city was under a flash flood emergency for part of the day – and some say it’s the beginning of problems that could last for days.

“The rain is going to be around as long as this thing is hanging out in the Gulf of Mexico,” said KAKE First Alert Meteorologist Cat Taylor. “And it’s not even projected to make landfall until Saturday.”

She said some comparison could be made to Hurricane Harvey. A storm that only had winds reaching Category 1-level but one that brought incredible amounts of rain that proved catastrophic to Houston.

The approaching storm doesn’t have a name yet, but Taylor said it could easily bring 20 to 30 feet of rain to the Louisiana region once the system passed.

“A whole lot of rain and storm surge are going to be the big issues,” she said.

That’s news McCurdy doesn’t want to hear.

“It’s kind of wait and see and hold it out and make sure we’re safe,” she said.