By Ryan W. Miller, Rick Jervis, Doyle Rice via USA Today
SABINE PASS, Texas — Hurricane Laura is expected to be an “extremely powerful Category 4 hurricane” with “unsurvivable storm surge” of up to 20 feet and 145-mph winds when it reaches the Gulf Coast on Wednesday night and early Thursday, the hurricane center said.
Laura, which grew to a Category 4 storm Wednesday afternoon with 140 mph winds, is forecast to bring “potentially catastrophic” storm surge, fierce winds and flash flooding to eastern Texas and Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center said.
Laura is now the strongest August hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico since infamous Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach said.
More than half a million people were ordered to evacuate as the storm approached, including the Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur.
“Hurricane Laura is a very dangerous and rapidly intensifying hurricane,” President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “My Administration remains fully engaged with state & local emergency managers to continue preparing and assisting the great people (of) Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas.”
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Wednesday that “this is a tough storm – big, powerful and every forecast seems to increase the intensity.”
The storm has already intensified a “remarkable” amount in the past 24 hours, the hurricane center said. And Laura is growing in size: “Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 70 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 175 miles,” forecasters said.
‘Rapid intensification’:Why Laura could be so dangerous
The storm, moving northwest at 16 mph, was last spotted 200 miles south-southeast of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and 200 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas, as of 1 p.m. CDT Wednesday. Wind speeds had increased to up to 140 mph, which is a Category 4 major hurricane. It’s the first major hurricane of the 2020 season. Read more from USA Today.
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