Laura set to hit US Gulf Coast as Cat-4 hurricane
GALVESTON, TEXAS: Hurricane Laura is set to slam into the US Gulf Coast as an extremely powerful Category 4 storm, unleashing deadly storm surges, flash floods and destructive winds that could inflict as much as $25 billion in damages.
Laura is already a Category 3 major hurricane with maximum winds of 201 km per hour, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
The storm could cause $20 billion to $25 billion in damage and economic losses, Chuck Watson, a disaster modeller with Enki Research, said on his blog.
Laura is just the latest storm to take shape in what’s already been an extremely active Atlantic hurricane season.
With three months left to go in the season, Laura will be the seventh system to hit the US, a record for the time of year, and the first major hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast since Michael in 2018.
Laura has prompted mandatory evacuations in coastal areas and is targeting the heart of America’s energy industry, shutting more than 80% of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and a third of the Gulf Coast’s refining capacity.
For anyone living in an area that floods or is in the direct path of Laura’s landfall, “there is not calculation to be made: Get out,” Watson said.
“Whatever fears you might have about Covid are secondary - even those with health issues that might make riding out a weaker storm an option.”
The governors of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi have all declared emergencies.
Laura killed at least nine people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the Associated Press reported. Though strong hurricanes often lose power just before landfall, Laura’s forward speed might prevent that from happening, allowing it to come ashore as a Category 4 storm, said Don Keeney, a meteorologist with commercial forecaster Maxar. The last Category 4 or 5 hurricane to hit the US was Michael in 2018.
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