(Updates to Hurricane Laura Landing in Louisiana)
By Ernest Scheyder and Jennifer Hiller
PORT ARTHUR, Texas, Aug. 26 (Reuters) – Hurricane Laura struck early Thursday in southwest Louisiana as one of the most powerful storms to hit the state, with forecasters warning it hit a massive wall of water 40 miles it land in cow of the sea.
Laura made packaged winds of 150 miles per hour (240 miles) in the small town of Cameron, Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The area in the immediate vicinity of Laura is home to about 4 million people, but officials said most were to safer areas under evacuation orders. Sheriffs, police officers and other authorities said it would take several hours before they could safely venture out to begin search and rescue operations.
Hurricane-force winds could blow as far as 200 miles into the country to Shreveport, Louisiana, forecasters said.
The oil-refining city of Port Arthur lay just west of where Laura landed. The city of 54,000 was a ghost town at the end of Wednesday, with only a few gas stations and a liquor store open for business.
“People need their vodka,” said Janaka Balasooriya, a cashier who said he lived a few blocks away and would venture out of the storm at home.
The area where Laura landed is swampy and particularly vulnerable to the storm surge of ocean water.
“This is one of the strongest storms affecting that part of the coastline,” said David Roth, a spokesman for the National Weather Service. “We are concerned about that storm surge going so far inland, because it’s basically all marshland north to Interstate 10. There’s not much to stop the water.”
Just hours before Laura broke into the coast, Port Arthur resident Eric Daw rushed to fill up her car at one of the few gas stations still open.
He said he wanted to evacuate earlier, but lacked money for gas because he was waiting for a payment for a restriction. Daw went to a shelter in San Antonio, a 4-1 / 2-hour ride, where instead of worrying about the storm dealing with COVID-19, worries of many others.
“They say we should all distance ourselves socially now,” he said. “But how should I take social distance in a shelter?”
‘WALL OF WATER’
About 620,000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders in Louisiana and Texas.
The storm surge could penetrate inland from Freeport, Texas, and the mouth of the Mississippi River, and could raise water levels as high as 6 feet (6 meters) in parts of Cameron Parish, Louisiana, the NHC said.
“To think that there would be a wall of water over two stories high up on the shore is for most people very difficult to get pregnant, but that’s what happens,” said meteorologist Benjamin Schott of National Weather Service at a news conference. Most of Louisiana’s Cameron Parish would be under water at some point, Schott added.
Temporary housing was hastily organized outside the stream zone for evacuated residents, and emergency teams were strategically positioned, federal emergency management agencies said.
Laura was also expected to be able to experience tornadoes over Louisiana, far southeast Texas and southwest Mississippi on Thursday and 5 to 10 inches (127 to 254 mm) of rain would fall across the region, the NHC said. It said there would likely be widespread flooding from far east Texas over Louisiana and Arkansas.
ENVIRONMENTAL WORKS
Major hurricanes such as Harvey and Katrina have previously wreaked havoc on the oil sector sites that support the Gulf Coast, where nearly half of the United States’ oil refining capacity is located. There are concerns that Laura may do the same.
When Harvey fell in 2017, there were oil and chemical mills, along with heavy air pollution from petrochemical plants and refineries.
“The storm and the immediate damage and human life are the most important things, but pollution can be a double whammy and increase the risk to the community,” said Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder in Port Arthor and Jennifer Hiller in Houston; Additional Reporting by Julio-Cesar Chavez in Port Arthur, Gary McWilliams in Houston, Liz Hampton in Denver, Gabriella Borter in New York and Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas; Written by Gabriella Borter and Brad Brooks; Edited by Leslie Adler and Stephen Coates)
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