Tropical Storm Marco heads to Louisiana as Tropical Storm Laura approaches Cuba
As two powerful storms menaced the US Gulf Coast on Monday, forecasters feared Marco would drive sea water to shore and unleash torrential rains just two days before Laura lashes the same region with potentially more powerful storm surge and winds.
Laura caused the deaths of at least 11 in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, knocking out power and causing flooding in the two nations that share the island of Hispaniola.
Forecasters raised the ominous possibility that warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico could super-charge Laura into a powerful hurricane. Laura’s center was just off Cuba and was not expected to weaken over land.
“Laura will be moving over the very warm and deep waters of Gulf Stream and Loop Current located over the south-eastern Gulf, which could trigger a brief period of rapid intensification,” the National Hurricane Center said.
That is a recipe for damaging winds of more than 110mph as Laura approaches the US, forecasters said.
“There is definitely a possibility that it could be a little bit stronger and be a category 3,” said meteorologist Benjamin Schott, who runs the National Weather Service office in Slidell, Louisiana.
Marco had grown into a hurricane early on Sunday but then weakened. On Monday it was centered about 85 miles south-south-east of the mouth of the Mississippi river and heading northwest at 10mph. Forecasters expected it to remain just offshore on Tuesday as it weakened and dissipated, leaving a flooded coastline as a stage for Laura.
Laura was centered just south of central Cuba, drenching most of the island with rain and tropical storm force winds. It’s top sustained winds were 65mph.
Rain bands from both storms could bring 2ft of rain to parts of Louisiana and several feet of potentially deadly storm surge, forecasters said.
“Basically that would be 10ft plus along the south-west Louisiana coast line” in a reasonable worst-case scenario, Schott said. That surge also could push water up to 30 miles up the rivers, he said.
The two-storm combination could bring a history-making onslaught of life-threatening winds and flooding from Texas to Alabama, forecasters said. It also comes as Louisiana continues its struggle to curb coronavirus infections.
Emergencies were declared in Louisiana and Mississippi.
“The virus is not concerned that we have hurricanes coming, and so it’s not going to take any time off and neither can we,” Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards said. “And it’s going to make things a little more difficult, but we have to be mindful of these mitigation measures.”
August Creppel, chief of the United Houma Nation, was concerned about the group’s 17,000 members, spread out over six parishes along the Louisiana coast.
“I’m very concerned for my people,” he said. “We know our people are going to get hit. We just don’t know who yet.”
Creppel has been in contact with the Red Cross in order to get supplies brought in to those in need once the storms pass, and the nation’s office in Houma, Louisiana has been fielding calls from people with questions or needing help.
The double punch of two storms comes just days before the 29 August anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Creppel took part in a ceremony on Saturday at the Superdome in New Orleans that included Native American singing and prayers.
Sarah Manowitz, responsible for four bars in the city’s French Quarter, saw to it that windows had been boarded up, battened down her own house and filled her tub with water. She was remaining on site, counting on a “community of people” that looks out for each other during storms.
“We’re all going to help each other share food, share whatever supplies,” she said.
In Haiti, civil protection officials working in the aftermath of Laura said they received reports a 10-year-old girl was killed when a tree fell on a home in the southern coastal town of Ansea-Pitres, on the border with the Dominican Republic.
Haiti’s prime minister said at least eight other people died and two were missing. In the Dominican Republic, relatives told reporters a collapsed wall killed a mother and her young son.
Hundreds of thousands were without power in the Dominican Republic amid heavy flooding in both countries.