Laura strikes Louisiana coast
Fierce winds ravage southern Louisiana
Hurricane Laura slammed southern Louisiana early Thursday as a Category 4 storm, one of the most powerful to strike the Gulf Coast in decades. The storm made landfall at 1 a.m. near Cameron, La., about 55 kilometres east of the Texas border.
Downtown Lake Charles, La., took a heavy hit, with widespread destruction from Laura’s devastating winds. Roofs were peeled off, buildings were destroyed, and lampposts were tossed into the streets. An industrial plant that makes chlorine-based products nearby was on fire, sending caustic smoke throughout the area and leading to a shelter-inplace order.
The storm, which leaped from a Category 1 hurricane on Tuesday to a high-end Category 4 on Wednesday night, packed 240 km/h peak winds when it crossed the coast. The storm weakened and was downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane Thursday morning as it headed northward, but it still had sustained winds of more than 160 km/h.
Heavy rain was predicted to be widespread across the west-central Gulf Coast, leading to flash flooding.
Though steadily weakening, Laura held onto hurricane status late Thursday morning, as it dashed through northern Louisiana. Winds had gusted over 85 mph in Alexandria, La., and more than 700,000 customers were without power in Louisiana and Texas.
Winds over 112 km/h remained possible in northern Louisiana into Thursday afternoon while winds to tropical-storm-force, over 62 km/h, were predicted to streak into Arkansas, as far north as Little Rock through Thursday night. These winds were likely to knock down trees and cause more outages.
Laura shredded trees and roofs in the Lake Charles area and surrounding Calcasieu Parish, but the storm brought little flooding and fewer rescue calls than feared, said Tom Hoefer, communications director of the parish’s emergency management office.
Hoefer said he had not heard reports of injuries or deaths in the parish, which sits just north of the Gulf Coast shoreline and includes hard-hit Sulphur.
“That’s a good sign, but I can tell you damage is extensive — mainly wind damage,” he said. “It was a very, very bad wind storm.”
Near Lake Charles, Hoefer said a fire is coming from a plant that makes chlorine-based products for use in industrial and commercial disinfectants; chlorine can be extremely hazardous if inhaled. He said the fire was at the Biolab manufacturing plant. Authorities shut down a nearby highway and issued a shelter-in-place order for Sulphur, warning people to stay inside and close their windows and doors. Hoefer said the smoke smelled of chlorine, which has been used as a weapon of war.
Isabelle Pierre, general counsel for KIK Custom Products, which owns Biolab, confirmed that the facility is the source of the fire. The facility manufactures trichloroisocyanuric acid, chlorinating granules and other specialty blends for products such as the household and pool cleansers.
“KIK Custom Products confirmed that, as a result of damage sustained during Hurricane Laura, there is currently a fire at one plant located at the company’s Biolab Lake Charles, LA facility,” the company said in a statement Thursday.
Cameron Parish is the second smallest in the state by population, in part because the southwestern region has a long history of being devastated by hurricanes.
A devastating storm hit the parish on June 27, 1957, marking an early hurricane season. The cyclone brought a “massive” storm surge into Cameron and neighbouring parishes, according to the National Weather Service. The storm killed at least 500 people and many residents who went missing in the hurricane were never found.
Almost 50 years later, in 2005, Hurricane Rita struck. Nearly all of the homes in Cameron Parish were destroyed, according to the Advocate. A third of the local residents who lost their homes in that storm decided not to rebuild, leaving the parish much smaller even a full decade later.
I CAN TELL YOU DAMAGE IS EXTENSIVE — MAINLY WIND DAMAGE.
Just three years after Rita, Hurricane Ike walloped the region, flooding the coastline. Even more people decided not to return to the parish after that storm.
More than 10 years have passed since Hurricane Ike, and almost 7,000 people live in Cameron Parish now. Most residents heeded mandatory evacuation orders on Wednesday as Hurricane Laura approached, but local officials said at least 150 people remained.
The damage Hurricane Laura is expected to wreak will likely be calamitous for Cameron Parish. On Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, said he had heard reports that the storm would leave the region severely flooded.
“They’re thinking Cameron parish is going to look like an extension of the Gulf of Mexico for a couple of days,” Edwards said Wednesday.