THIS ONE SIMPLY A MONSTER
Laura's surge 'unsurvivable'
Hurricane Laura strengthened to a Category 4 storm Wednesday as it barreled toward Texas and Louisiana and threatened the Gulf Coast with “catastrophic damage,” the National Weather Service said.
The rapidly intensifying storm — which was poised to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday — was packing winds of 150 mph, the NWS said in a press release.
A hurricane with the strength of Laura, which grew from Category 1 to 4 in just a little more than a day, hasn’t hit the region in more than a decade.
“We are expecting widespread power outages, trees down. Homes and businesses will be damaged,” said NWS meteorologist Donald Jones. “I’m telling you, this is going to be a very serious situation.”
Floodwaters were already surging into Texas and Louisiana and were inundating roadways Wednesday afternoon.
The storm surge was expected to flood coastal areas with between 15 and 20 feet of water, depending on whether it strikes during high or low tide, the weather service said.
With such a deluge expected, NWS urged all residents who live in the roughly 85-mile-long swath of coastal land between Sea Rim State Park, Texas, and Intracoastal City, La., to flee to higher land.
“Unsurvivable storm surge with large and destructive waves will cause catastrophic damage,” the weather service proclaimed.
“Only a few hours remain to protect life and property, and all actions should be rushed to completion.”
The storm is expected to unleash floodwaters on areas up to 30 miles from the coastline, according to the weather service.
“Residents in these areas should heed all evacuation orders and instructions from local emergency management and take necessary precautions to protect life and property,” the weather service said.
On Wednesday morning, a flooded coastal Louisiana highway was forced to close in anticipation of rising waters, the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office reported via Facebook.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards in a Wednesday-evening interviewed spoke about the “apocalyptic” language that meteorologists are using to describe the storm.
“The language I’ve heard from the National Weather Service I’ve never heard before . . . They’re sending the strongest possible message about how serious this storm is,” he said.
Edwards said search and rescue efforts will begin Thursday as soon as it’s safe enough for officials to go out into floodwaters.
Along with road closures, officials in Port Arthur, Texas — a low-income city of 54,000 that was hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 — ordered mandatory evacuations.
The nearby city of Beaumont also ordered an evacuation.