Hurricane Laura leaves damage behind in Louisiana, weakening for tropical depression

Hurricane Laura, after clearing extensive damage in Louisiana, is now moving east as a tropical depression through Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama as forecasters warn of more dangerous weather over the weekend.

The hurricane on Thursday left property damage, a dangerous chemical fire and at least six people dead in Louisiana before moving north through Arkansas later in the night. Although the extent of the storm’s destruction is not yet clear, Louisiana and Texas officials have signaled that the damage is less catastrophic than expected.

The day before Laura swept through Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center and officials issued stern warnings urging more than half a million people to evacuate in both states.

Despite Laura hitting the country with such force, the predicted storm surge – expected to “not survive” up to 20 feet high – eventually became about half as high in Louisiana. Forecasters said this was due in part to the storm moving quickly.

“It is clear that we have not sustained the absolute catastrophic damage and suffering we thought was likely based on the prediction we had yesterday,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards in a briefing Thursday afternoon. “But we have suffered tremendous damage. We have thousands and thousands of our citizens whose lives are upside down.”

New tornado warnings were issued Thursday night in Mississippi and Arkansas. Forecasters warn that Laura could re-energize several northeastern states through Saturday. Laura was the most powerful hurricane to hit Louisiana, surpassing even Katrina, a Category 3 storm that devastated the state in 2005.

Areas in Louisiana and Texas are estimated to have between $ 8 billion and $ 12 billion in insured losses from Laura’s upswing and strong winds, with declines in residential and commercial property totaling less than $ 500 million. The center of the storm hit more sparsely populated areas in the states, according to global data and analytics provider CoreLogic.

“There’s never a good place for a hurricane to land. But this was the best possible outcome, because it spared the major population centers of Houston and New Orleans,” said Curtis McDonald, meteorologist and senior product manager at CoreLogic .

President Donald Trump said he plans to visit the Gulf Coast this weekend to witness the destruction.

Hurricanes are becoming more frequent and destructive due to climate change, and the storm is attracting new attention to the dozens of petrochemical plants and dangerous places in Louisiana that were in Laura’s path. It raises fears about the potential for environmental damage and concerns about health care.

Laura moved through large industrial areas in Louisiana and Texas, including the Lake Charles area, which has a number of large chemical plants, and Port Authur Texas, home to North America’s largest oil refinery.

The fire in the chemical plant BioLab, which produces chemicals used in household appliances and chlorine for swimming pools, released chlorine gas into the air on Thursday and asked the governor to order people to be seated and air conditioned out. to set. The fire was extinguished Thursday night.

In the US, there are people who live closest to large industrial areas who threaten to release toxic chemicals during storms, poverty and color shortages.

“A stormy climate causes a fire of chemical plants that spews more emissions that fuels more climate change,” climate journalist Emily Atkin said in a tweet about the plant’s fire. “Our environmental crises are encouraging each other.”

When Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and Louisiana in 2017, it caused catastrophic flooding that flooded chemical plants and oil refineries and released deadly carcinogens in neighborhoods in Houston. Now, some communities in Houston have experienced higher levels of leukemia in children due to the higher concentration of chemicals in the air.

Laura was the seventh named storm to hit the U.S. this year, breaking a record for U.S. landfall by the end of August. The Atlantic hurricane season, on track to be the worst in part due to warmer ocean waters, is not over.

The season, which officially runs until the end of November, is expected to bring between nine and 25 named storms to the US, with seven to 11 of those storms developing into hurricanes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.