Delta hits Louisiana and is the 10th hurricane to hit the US coast this year | World

The United States National Guard mobilized, while the population of the coast of the state, in the southeastern part of the country, fled their homes, facing the threat of severe storms and floods.

“I don’t know if we’ll have a home when we get back,” said Kimberly Hester, a resident of Lake Charles, Louisiana (southeast), where the Delta will pass.

This city of about 75,000 inhabitants is known for its oil refineries and is in the middle of the expected path of the hurricane.

The NHC reported that “a very dangerous flood” was expected north of the Gulf of Mexico coast, with flooding of up to 10 feet.

The hurricane has passed through the Mexican Yucatan peninsula without causing major damage and without reports of victims.

Many on the Louisiana coast are still recovering from Hurricane Laura, which arrived in late August at a Category 4 on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards urged residents to be extremely wary of the Delta and announced that 2,400 National Guard members had been mobilized to help.

The Delta is expected to impact “the area of ​​our state that is least prepared,” Edwards said Thursday night.

“Please complete the preparations now. We will get through this,” he told residents.

In the city of Lake Charles, where wood debris and trees felled by Hurricane Laura are still on the streets, Shannon Fuselier punches wooden signs in the windows of a friend’s house to protect them.

Many homes in the neighborhood are covered with tarps due to damage from previous hurricanes.

Fuselier says he will stay home, because he doesn’t think Delta is powerful enough to have to flee. Governor Edwards warned, however, that the Delta could make missile debris from previous storms fly like missiles.

As of Thursday, traffic was congested in both directions from Lake Charles, as crowds left town.

Terry Lebine had already left for the city of Alexandria, about 100 km to the north, due to the previous hurricane and is preparing to flee once more.

“It is exhausting,” he told AFP. “I have my 81-year-old mother in poor health. We hardly got home after Laura and we have to go back to the Delta. We stay home for two or three weeks,” he says.

The Delta is the 26th storm of an unusually active Atlantic hurricane season. In September, meteorologists ran out of names to designate them and had to use letters from the Greek alphabet.

As the temperature of ocean waters increases, due to climate change, hurricanes become stronger. According to scientists, the number of Category 4 and 5 storms, the most dangerous, is likely to increase.

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