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Hurricane Laura strikes Louisiana as Category 4 storm, battering Lake Charles area and bringing flood threat
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 35 miles 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-in-place order.
The storm, which leaped from a Category 1 hurricane on Tuesday to a high-end Category 4 on Wednesday night, packed 150 mph 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 100 mph………
Hurricane Laura Live Updates: Storm Plows Through Louisiana
Hurricane Laura, which began the day rolling ashore as one of the strongest storms ever to hit Louisiana, plowed trough the state from south to north, gradually weakening to become a tropical storm but wreaking destruction all along its path and killing at least six people before the afternoon was through.
After slamming coastal communities in the early hours of Thursday, the storm roared into the city of Lake Charles, La., ripping apart buildings and causing a fire at a chemical plant, which sent acrid smoke billowing into the sky and prompted the state to order people living nearby to stay inside with their windows shut……….
Hurricane Laura leaves damage in Louisiana and weakens into tropical depression
Hurricane Laura, after unleashing extensive damage in Louisiana, is now moving eastward as a tropical depression through Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama as forecasters warn of more dangerous weather over the weekend.
The hurricane left property damage, a hazardous chemical fire and at least six people dead in Louisiana on Thursday before moving north later in the night through Arkansas. Though the extent of the storm’s destruction is not clear, Louisiana and Texas officials signaled that the damage is less catastrophic than anticipated.
Packing 150 mph wind, Laura was the most powerful hurricane to strike Louisiana, surpassing even Katrina, a Category 3 storm that devastated the state in 2005……..
Some Louisiana residents won’t have power for weeks, if not months, after Hurricane Laura
Fifteen years after Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana, the state faces another long, grueling recovery in the wake of Hurricane Laura.
Laura destroyed parts of Louisiana’s power grid after making landfall Thursday as the strongest hurricane to strike the state since 1856. The storm struck with 150-mph winds, shredded houses and contributed to at least 17 deaths in Louisiana and Texas………
Deaths related to Hurricane Laura rise to at least 24
By Phil Helsel — Two more deaths in Louisiana have been blamed on Hurricane Laura, which made landfall there last month as a Category 4 storm, bringing the deaths in that state to at least 19, officials said.
The new deaths in Rapides Parish, involved people who died from medical conditions that were exacerbated by excessive heat and the loss of electricity, the Louisiana Department of Health said.
Five deaths in Texas have also been blamed on the hurricane, which made landfall Aug. 27, bringing the total deaths related to the storm to at least 24 in the two states.
One year later, Southwest Louisiana still picking up pieces after Hurricane Laura
LAKE CHARLES, La. — One year ago today Hurricane Laura devastated Southwest Louisiana during the historic 2020 hurricane season.
All the right ingredients were there. Above-average Atlantic water temperatures, active West African Monsoon and no El Niño. El Niño causes strong upper-level winds that can tear apart tropical storms. Instead we had a La Niña. It is no help at all in disrupting tropical weather.
The Gulf Coast had major impacts, with the state of Louisiana having the most.
Major Hurricane Laura hit Cameron Parish Aug. 27 as a category 4 storm with 150 mph winds.
Hurricane Laura tied the record for the strongest landfalling hurricane in Louisiana since 1851 with the Last Island Hurricane of 1856. Winds were 150 mph and the pressure 938 at landfall. Landfall was 1 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 27………
Hurricane Laura levels homes and causes deaths as one of US’s strongest ever storms
Remnants of Hurricane Laura unleashed heavy rain and twisters hundreds of miles inland from a path of death and mangled buildings along the Gulf coast, and forecasters warn of new dangers as the tropical weather blows toward the eastern seaboard this weekend.
More than 600,000 homes and businesses were without power in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas in the category 4 storm’s wake, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.
One of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the United States, Laura was blamed for 14 deaths as it barreled across Louisiana and parts of Texas. Aerial pictures showed whole neighborhoods leveled across parts of the coast, huge expanses of flood water and many buildings with shredded roofs and blasted-out windows……..
Nearly two years after Hurricane Laura, Louisiana Gulf Coast is still recovering
It’s rather surreal to be camped out on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, in Cameron Parish, knowing how a year and a half ago the ocean rose approximately 18 feet under the power of Hurricane Laura.
That storm surge swept inland over sparse but still populated bayous and marshland of southern Louisiana, taking out homes, businesses, infrastructure, and cemeteries.
I had come down from Canada to start a two-month storm chasing-focused road trip and didn’t really know what I’d find 18 months after Laura had hit………