WTIX NEWS
SABINE PASS, Texas — Hurricane Laura is an “extremely powerful Category 4 hurricane” with “unsurvivable storm surge” of up to 20 feet and 145-mph winds, gusts up to 195, 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. Power outages are expected throughout the region into Arkansas and several other states.
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.
People were ordered to evacuate as the storm approached, Holly Beach, Cameron and Lake Charles, Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur.
The Trump administration is in close contact with local officials, the governor’s of Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, for immediate federal aid.
