An employee of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is monitoring tropical storm Laura in Santo Domingo, on August 22, 2020.
Erika Santelices | AFP | Getty Images
Marco intensified Sunday in a hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico en route to the coast of Louisiana, according to data from an Air Force Reserve aircraft fighter jet.
Tropical Storm Laura, which hit the Dominican Republic and Haiti, is also expected to develop into a hurricane and is heading for the U.S. coast.
Laura was able to make landfall Wednesday from Texas to the Gulf Coast of Florida and Marco was able to shoot Louisiana or Mississippi on Monday afternoon, according to projections from the National Hurricane Center.
The National Hurricane Center warned of potentially life-threatening storm surges and high winds along the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Marco approaches. A maximum uprising of 6 feet was forecast for some areas of the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Friday declared a state of emergency and asked the Trump administration to grant federal emergency status to the state in preparation for the storms that are developing. Mississippy Gov. Tate Reeves also declared a state of emergency and warned residents that space in evacuation farms would be limited due to Covid-19.
This year’s hurricane season is set to become one of the worst in recorded history, in part due to warmer sea temperatures under the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
The warmer ocean temperatures are driven by climate change, which has caused more intense and frequent disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires and hot waves. California is currently fighting more than 500 fires during the devastating coronavirus pandemic.
“We are in unusual times,” Reeves said at a news conference Saturday. “We are not only dealing with two potential storms in the coming hours, we are also dealing with Covid-19.”
The hurricane season lasts from June 1 to November 30 and is predicted to have 19 to 25 named storms, with 7 to 11 of those storms expected to develop in hurricanes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA predicts there will be 3 to 6 major hurricanes with winds greater than 111 miles per hour.
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