More than 800,000 customers were without power in Texas and Louisiana Thursday afternoon, as catastrophic storm surges and extreme winds battered coastal areas under evacuation orders, and a weakening Hurricane Laura continues on its path north toward Arkansas.
Hurricane Laura moved ashore before 1 a.m. CDT just east of the Texas-Louisiana line near Cameron Parish, La., with the strength of a Category 4 hurricane, maximum sustained winds at about 150 mph, and a minimum central pressure of 938 mb.
More than 240,000 customers were without power in Texas, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks blackouts around the country.
Those in the southeastern part of the state in Jefferson, Orange and Hardin counties the most affected. More than 580,000 customers were suffering from outages in Louisiana, as the eye passed over Lake Charles, ripping off roofs, downing trees and bringing high floodwaters.
In a matter of hours, Laura weakened to a Category 2, as the eyewall of the hurricane was pushing inland across southwestern Louisiana. Now a Category 1 hurricane, Laura remains on course for Arkansas, and Gov. Asa Hutchinson declared an emergency, set aside $250,000 for the state to prepare for the hurricane’s impact and has search and rescue teams on standby.
The National Hurricane Center updated its guidance on the ocean water pushed ashore, saying they expect an “unsurvivable” storm surge with large and destructive waves causing catastrophic damage from Sea Rim State Park, Texas, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana, including Calcasieu and Sabine Lakes…
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