In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, more than half a million people on the Gulf of Mexico coast received evacuation orders, after Storm Laura turned into a hurricane on Tuesday.
Meteorologists warned early Wednesday that Laura has become a Category 2 hurricane , with winds of up to 105 miles per hour , as it strengthens as it passes through the warm and deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and approaches Texas and Louisiana.
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. The waters are very warm where the storm is now and they will be all the way to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, ”said the deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, 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 surge 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. Hurricane warnings were issued from San Luis Pass, Texas, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana.
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.