One of the most intense hurricanes to hit Louisiana and Texas in decades has left a path of destruction and a total of six fatalities so far. Hundreds of thousands of people are without power or drinking water in the wake of the storm, while dozens of homes and buildings suffered considerable damage.
What We Know:
- The National Hurricane Center downgraded Laura to a tropical storm Thursday after making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph winds and has weakened into a tropical depression after it passed Arkansas overnight.
- Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards stated on Thursday, “it is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute, catastrophic damage that we thought was likely based on the forecast we had last night.”
He added that despite the outcome, there are still “thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens whose lives are upside down”.
- Louisiana Department of Health officials reported six deaths so far, three occurred in the coastal parishes of Acadia and Calcasieu. The other three were people who died in northern and eastern parts of the state. At least four deaths were a result of fallen trees.
- Although the storm did not end up making a larger impact than it could have, severe damage was still present. For example, the Lake Charles Isle of Capri Casino Barge broke free of its moorings and reportedly slammed into a bridge along Interstate 10, a major highway that connects Houston and New Orleans.
- Just a couple miles from that incident, a fire erupted at a chemical manufacturing plant in the city of Westlake, which resulted in a relatively toxic plume of smoke. This particular BioLab, which manufactures household cleaners, burned chlorine. No injuries or deaths have been reported from the casino or plant.
- As of Thursday evening, PowerOutage.us shows over 500,000 customers were without electricity in Louisiana and another 300,000 more in Texas. The Louisiana Department of Health estimated that another 220,000 residents currently don’t have access to drinking water.
President @realDonaldTrump announced yesterday at FEMA that he will visit Texas and Louisiana this weekend to survey storm damage from Hurricane Laura.
Thank you to the incredible first responders working around the clock to keep people safe!
More: https://t.co/A68ueVC88u pic.twitter.com/DHh5gWnIUh
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 28, 2020
- The White House tweeted on Friday that President Trump himself with be visiting the affected states and FEMA will have no problem providing disaster relief, according to the attached statement.
Another element of the storm, the forecasted storm surge up to 20 feet, did not happen. It ended up being graciously lower and meteorologists claimed the timing was what helped. By the time Laura made landfill, the tide had begun to recede due to the storm slightly shifting east, which saved Lake Charles from a direct hit.
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