This strength was not maintained for long. The storm began to quickly weaken in the early morning hours of October 3, and this rapid weakening continued until the hurricane's final landfall near Intracoastal City, Louisiana, due to a combination of vertical wind shear, cool waters just offshore Louisiana, and slowly encroaching dry air within its southwest quadrant. By the time of landfall, maximum sustained winds had dropped to . The weakening was accompanied by a collapse of the inner eyewall before landfall. The system continued inland, curving to the north-northeast, and dissipated when absorbed by an extratropical low near the Arkansas/Tennessee border on October 6.