Hurricane Laura was the most powerful hurricane on record in Louisiana in September with winds of 150 mph in the southwest corner of the state. Six weeks later, Category 2 weakened until Hurricane Delta landed, but there were still stranded towns trying to recover from Laura.
Westlake, La. In a city of about 2,000 people near Lake Charles, Laura’s winds caused the roof to burst, a wall in City Hall to collapse into a cave, and a 20-foot-tall pine toppling in half. Robert Hardy, Mayor. Then came Delta.
“We were already killed everywhere with blue torpedoes, and all those torps were blown up,” he said of the second storm. “There wasn’t a telephone pole standing, there wasn’t a business that wasn’t affected, there wasn’t a single house that wasn’t damaged.”
Mr Hurde said he expects it to cost $ 6 million, half of the city’s budget, to clear trees and debris that had fallen by both hurricanes. He said the federal government told him it would cover 75 percent of the cost, but the city needed more funding or it would go into serious long-term debt.
“I can’t take that hit,” Mr. Herde said.
Residents and communities in hurricane-hit areas should be reminded to adapt to the frequency of hurricanes this year, as climate change threatens to exacerbate the damage caused by such hurricanes, said Gary W., chairman of the Environmental Studies and Environment at Economics. Said Yohe. Wesleyan University.
Instead of rebuilding a hurricane-filled mound, for example, consider building a town park that can better absorb water from future storms.
Professor Yohe said, “Knee side effects again wherever you are, think a little about it.” “We don’t know where the next one is going, but I know there will be one after another. And there is a tendency that they are getting worse. “
Rick Rojas and Neil Wigdor contributed to the reporting.
