Powerful Hurricane Laura battered the Louisiana coastline Thursday morning after sweeping ashore as the region’s strongest storm in over a century.
If you’re just reading in now, here are the latest developments on the storm:
Downgraded: Hurricane Laura made landfall as a Category 4 storm, but it has since weakened to a Category 2. It still has winds of 110 mph.
More weakening expected: Further weakening will continue, and Laura will likely become a tropical storm later today as it tracks from Louisiana into Arkansas.
The storm surge threat: The storm surge for Laura could spread up to 30 miles inland in southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas — reaching all the way to Interstate 10 potentially between Beaumont and Lake Charles. The National Hurricane Center warned the surge could be “unsurvivable” in some areas.
Not everyone headed evacuation warnings: Cameron Parish, Louisiana, was put under a mandatory evacuation, but out of 6,500 residents, 150 have refused to leave, said Ashley Buller, assistant director of Emergency Operations for the parish.
Source: CNN