Louisiana residents brace for nightmare’s return with Delta

People in south Louisiana steeled themselves Friday as Hurricane Delta delivered bands of rain, strong winds and rising water ahead of its expected arrival in a part of the state still recovering from a deadly catastrophic hurricane six weeks ago.

In the city of Lake Charles, located about 30 miles inland from where Delta was expected to make landfall, rain pelted the tarp-covered roofs of buildings that Hurricane Laura battered when it barrelled through Louisiana in late August and killed at least 27 people in the state.

“It’s devastating and it’s emotional for the citizenry,” Mayor Nic Hunter said as he prepared to ride out the storm in downtown Lake Charles.

At 3 p.m., Delta was 50 miles (80 kilometres) from the coastal community of Cameron. Forecasters said the storm surge could reach as high as 11 feet along the Louisiana coast.

With landfall still hours away, the National Hurricane Center reported 4.5 feet (1.4 metres) of storm surge had been measured on the coast east of Cameron.

Laura damaged about 95 per cent of the homes and buildings in Lake Charles, while up to 8,000 residents — or 10 per cent of the population — remain displaced, the mayor said. Piles of mouldy mattresses, sawed-up trees and other leftover debris lined the city’s largely vacant streets Friday, arousing concern they could cause more damage and deaths when the new storm strikes.

“We just got lights back on like two weeks ago and then evacuating again? It’s extremely hard,” said Roslyn Kennedy. She was among a handful of evacuees at the Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles, waiting to be transported, again, to safer destinations.

Forecasters said the 25th named storm of an unprecedented Atlantic hurricane season would likely crash ashore Friday evening somewhere on southwest Louisiana’s coast. Hurricane warnings stretched from High Island, Texas, to Morgan

City, Louisiana.

The question was how powerful Delta would be by the time it makes landfall. In its latest update Friday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center said Delta had continued to weaken and become a strong Category 2 storm with winds of 105 mph (169 kph). Earlier Friday, it had sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph), putting it at Category 3 strength.