Laura is dangerously close to Texas and Louisiana like a Category 3 hurricane , with winds of 125 miles per hour,and it is intensifying rapidly as it passes through the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It is expected to reach Category 4 before making landfall somewhere in those states between tonight and early Thursday morning.
The latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warns of catastrophic storm surge, extreme winds and flash flooding on the northwest coast of the Gulf of Mexico starting tonight. It also warns that "there are only a few hours left to protect life and property."
Given the danger of the powerful cyclone, more than half a million people on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico received evacuation orders, after Storm Laura turned into a hurricane on Tuesday.
The center predicted that Laura will approach north Texas and the coasts of southwest Louisiana late Wednesday night and move into the interior of the country tonight or Thursday morning where heavy rains are forecast that can cause catastrophic flooding. . Once it makes landfall, the NHC expects Laura to weaken.
The powerful hurricane is 235 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas, and south-southeast of Lake Charles, Louisiana. Its speed of translation is 16 miles per hour.
More than 385,000 residents of the Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur received evacuation orders. Another 200,000 people from Calcasieu Parish, in southeastern Louisiana, will also have to leave their homes, as sea levels could rise as high as 13 feet or four meters in that area , flooding entire communities.
Residents of Galveston, Texas, are evacuated by bus on August 25, 2020, before Hurricane Laura hits the state coast.
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“The waters are warm enough throughout this area for a hurricane of force majeure, category 3 or even higher, to form,” said National Hurricane Center deputy director Ed Rappaport.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Laura is shaping up to look a lot like Hurricane Rita, which devastated southwestern Louisiana 15 years ago.
"We are going to have major floods in places that don't normally experience them," he said.
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Storm surges will raise sea levels along more than 450 miles (724 kilometers) of coastline, from the flood protection system of Port Arthur, Texas, to the mouth of the Mississippi River, and may even flood areas of Arkansas. A hurricane watch was issued from San Luis Pass, Texas, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana.
Hurricane Laura this Wednesday.NOAA
But there could be even more evacuations if the storm's path veers east or west, said Craig Fugate, former chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Fearing that not everyone will evacuate in time, Edwards asked those who did not complete the eviction by noon Wednesday to stay in place, to wait for the storm to pass, then move after the effects of the meteor began to be felt. it would pose a greater risk.
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Officials urged people to stay with family members or in hotel rooms to prevent the spread of COVID-19 . The buses that the Texas authorities arranged to carry out the evacuations were equipped with disinfectant, masks and would carry fewer passengers to keep people separated.
Whitney Frazier, a 29-year-old Beaumont resident, spent Tuesday morning trying to get a ride to a high school where she could board a bus to evacuate the area.
"Especially with everything related to COVID, which is already happening, also having a mandatory evacuation is very stressful," Frazier said.
With information from The Associated Press.