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After Hurricane “Laura” wreaked havoc on the US coast in the Gulf of Mexico, hundreds of thousands of people were left without power. Meanwhile, “Laura” weakened to a tropical storm over the state of Louisiana. Flood advisories were issued for the Arkansas and Missouri regions on Friday.
“Laura” hit the continental United States on Thursday with winds of up to 150 miles per hour. At least six people died. Four of them died because trees fell on houses, Louisiana State Governor John Bel Edwards said.
The force of the storm covered the roofs, tore the facades of the houses and caused the pylons to bend. Seawater flooded the coast inland. One person drowned in a storm on a boat, another died of carbon monoxide poisoning, caused by an emergency power generator, according to authorities.
The power grid was badly damaged, Edwards said, but at the same time made it clear that authorities feared a worse scenario. The hurricane center had warned of storm surges up to twenty feet high.
The authorities had ordered hundreds of thousands of people to safety. The closer the storm approached the US coast on Wednesday, the more urgent the warnings became. “Now take cover,” the National Hurricane Center finally wrote. It is a “life threatening situation”.
Water supply systems were also damaged around the particularly affected city of Lake Charles. Almost nothing comes out of the taps, Mayor Nic Hunter wrote in a Facebook post. It is not clear when the water and electricity supply can be restored. Residents would likely have to adjust to difficult circumstances for weeks. President Donald Trump announced that he would likely visit the affected areas over the weekend.
In Lake Charles, the antenna mast of the KPLC transmitter fell on the evacuated studio and pierced the roof. A chemical plant caught fire Thursday in nearby Westlake. Police said there was a chlorine gas leak. People had to keep staying in their homes.
“Laura” had quickly gained strength in unusually warm seawater and went from category two to category four (out of five) in a few hours Wednesday. This made “Laura” the first strong hurricane of the season.
The US climate agency NOAA predicts that 2020 could be a record year for hurricanes. 19 to 25 storms are expected, of which seven to eleven could become hurricanes.
Those: Apa / Ag.
