Hurricane Laura brings 150mph winds to Louisiana with more 'catastrophic conditions' to come // VIDEO: Aerial footage shows massive flooding in Hurricane Laura aftermath

Hurricane Laura brings 150mph winds to Louisiana with more 'catastrophic conditions' to come

 

Laura was heading north towards Shreveport, Louisiana, early Thursday morning, rather than west across Texas

 

Adam Gabbatt and agencies

 @adamgabbatt

Thu 27 Aug 2020 13.17 BSTFirst published on Thu 27 Aug 2020 07.55 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/27/hurricane-laura-makes-landfall-louisiana-winds-storm-surge

 

Hurricane Laura, the most powerful hurricane to strike the US this year, was moving inland on a northerly path on Thursday morning, threatening an “unsurvivable storm surge” and tropical force weather as far as Tennessee.

 

The storm slammed into western Louisiana overnight with gusts of up to 150mph and will cause “catastrophic conditions” as it progresses, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

 

Concern was growing on for people in the path of the tempest in Louisiana who did not evacuate on Wednesday.

 

The northern eyewall of the storm moved over Cameron Parish, on the Louisiana coast, at 1am ET, before slamming into the city of Lake Charles.

 

Authorities had ordered coastal residents to get out, but not everyone did in an area which was devastated by Hurricane Rita in 2005. More than 450,000 homes were without power in Texas and Louisiana on Thursday morning.

 

Laura was heading north towards Shreveport, Louisiana, early Thursday morning, rather than west across Texas as had been one of the leading predictions, meaning the city of Houston has probably dodged a bullet, although coastal Port Arthur is threatened by storm surge flooding.

 

The fierce wind battered a tall building in Lake Charles, blowing out windows as glass as debris flew to the ground. Hours after landfall, the wind and rain were still blowing hard.

 

“There are some people still in town and people are calling ... but there ain’t no way to get to them,” Tony Guillory, president of the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, said early Thursday morning over the phone as he was battened down in a Lake Charles government building that was shaking from the storm.

 

Hurricane force winds are expected to continue through the morning, according to the NHC, although Laura had weakened to a category 2 hurricane by 7am ET.

 

The center warned that an “unsurvivable storm surge with large and destructive waves will cause catastrophic damage from Sea Rim state park, Texas, to Intracoastal City, Lousiana”.

 

The National Hurricane Center said Laura will move across southwestern Louisiana this morning, and continue northward across the state through this afternoon.

 

The center of the storm is forecast to move over Arkansas tonight, the mid-Mississippi Valley on Friday, and the mid-Atlantic states on Saturday.

 

Forecasters said the storm surge could be 6 metres (20ft) deep and unsurvivable.

 

Authorities had previously implored coastal residents of Texas and Louisiana to evacuate, but many did not, before howling winds began buffeting trees back and forth in an area that was devastated by Hurricane Rita in 2005.

 

Expected trajectory of Hurricane Laura

Social media footage showed torrents of rain rushing sideways past lampposts in Lake Charles, and streets covered with water closer to the coast.

 

With hours of violent weather ahead, officials said the extent of destruction would not be clear until dawn, when search-and-rescue missions would begin.

 

The storm system arrived during high tide, drawing energy from the warm Gulf of Mexico.

 

Officials said at least 150 people rejected pleas to leave and planned to weather the storm in everything from elevated homes to recreational vehicles in coastal Cameron Parish.

 

“It’s a very sad situation,” said Ashley Buller, the assistant director of emergency preparedness. “We did everything we could to encourage them to leave.”

 

The parts of Louisiana that were under evacuation orders included areas with high rates of Covid-19.

 

The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, and his Louisiana counterpart, John Bel Edwards, feared the dire predictions were not resonating with the public, despite authorities putting more than 500,000 coastal residents under mandatory evacuation orders.

 

Hurricane warnings were issued from San Luis Pass in Texas to Intracoastal City in Louisiana, and reached inland for 200 miles. Storm surge warnings extended from Freeport in Texas to the mouth of the Mississippi River.

 

Donald Trump tweeted that coastal residents should heed advice from officials.