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PORT ARTHUR, Texas — Hurricane Laura is expected to be an "extremely powerful Category 4 hurricane" with "unsurvivable storm surge" when it reaches the Gulf Coast on Wednesday night and early Thursday, the hurricane center said in its 10 a.m. CDT update.
Laura, which grew to a Category 3 storm early Wednesday, is forecast to bring "potentially catastrophic" storm surge, fierce winds and flash flooding to eastern Texas and Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center said.
More than half a million people were ordered to evacuate as the storm approached, including the Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur.
The storm has already intensified a "remarkable" amount in the past 24 hours, the storm center says.
Laura is growing in size, too. "Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 70 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 175 miles," forecasters said.
The storm, moving northwest at 16 mph, was last spotted 225 miles south-southeast of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and 235 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas, as of 10 a.m. CDT Wednesday. Wind speeds had increased to up to 125 mph, which is a Category 3 major hurricane. It's the first major hurricane of the 2020 season.
“We are expecting widespread power outages, trees down. Homes and businesses will be damaged,” said Donald Jones, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-storm-category-4-texas-louisiana/3441543001/
Laura, which grew to a Category 3 storm early Wednesday, is forecast to bring "potentially catastrophic" storm surge, fierce winds and flash flooding to eastern Texas and Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center said.
More than half a million people were ordered to evacuate as the storm approached, including the Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur.
The storm has already intensified a "remarkable" amount in the past 24 hours, the storm center says.
Laura is growing in size, too. "Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 70 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 175 miles," forecasters said.
The storm, moving northwest at 16 mph, was last spotted 225 miles south-southeast of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and 235 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas, as of 10 a.m. CDT Wednesday. Wind speeds had increased to up to 125 mph, which is a Category 3 major hurricane. It's the first major hurricane of the 2020 season.
“We are expecting widespread power outages, trees down. Homes and businesses will be damaged,” said Donald Jones, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-storm-category-4-texas-louisiana/3441543001/
