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Delta has been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm one day after it made landfall in the United States.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Delta reached southwest Louisiana Friday night as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum winds of 100 mph, but quickly weakened to a tropical storm.
It still caused destruction to communities in places like Lake Charles, which was still recovering from Hurricane Laura, which killed 27 people in Louisiana six weeks ago.
Homes were damaged in the city of Lake Charles, Louisiana
Debris from Laura still lined the streets and the city’s mayor, Nic Hunter, said Delta had ripped tarps from houses throughout the city.
He said, “I’m in a building right now with a tarp and just the sound of the tarp flapping in the building sounds like someone hitting the top of the building with a mallet.”
Jeanne-Marie Gove, in Lafayette, about 75 miles (121 km) east of Lake Charles, stayed in the area during Laura and decided to take shelter again during Delta.
He said he could hear debris pounding on the front door of his home Friday night, describing it as “much worse than what Hurricane Laura brought.”
Roads were flooded in Baker, Louisiana as the storm approached
“The wind gusts are causing the glass in our windows to bend inward,” he added. “It’s pretty scary.”
Delta caused power outages in Louisiana and Texas for 600,000 homes and businesses in the early hours of Saturday, while nearly 40,000 properties suffered power outages in Mississippi.
By Saturday morning, the Delta’s maximum sustained winds were 60 mph and it is expected to slow further to a tropical depression as it moves through northern Mississippi into the Tennessee Valley.
Delta was the fourth named storm to hit Louisiana in 2020 – Tropical Storm Marco died down when it struck southeastern Louisiana just three days before Laura. And Tropical Storm Christopher caused damage in southeastern Louisiana in June.
