An employee of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) monitors tropical storm Laura in Santo Domingo. (ERIKA SANTELICES/afp/AFP via Getty Images)
Hurricane Marco and Tropical Storm Laura may make weather history as they continue their paths toward the United States Sunday.
Marco gained strength while swirling over the Gulf of Mexico Sunday heading for a possible hit on the Louisiana coast. Laura battered the Dominican Republic and Haiti and headed to the same part of the U.S. coast as a potential hurricane.
It would be the first time two hurricanes form in the Gulf of Mexico simultaneously, according to records dating to at least 1900, said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.
According to FOX 5's Ryan Beesley, the shortest time on record between two continental U.S. landfalling hurricanes is 23 hours, which happened in September of 1933 with the Treasure Coast Hurricane and the Cuba-Brownsville Hurricane. Since the storms began being recorded in 1851, Louisiana has had multiple hurricanes hit its coast in the same year only four times, the latest being in 2005.
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FOX 5 Storm Team Forecast
Lots of heat and humidity with thunderstorms likely Wednesday and Thursday.
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A hurricane watch was issued for the New Orleans metro area, which Hurricane Katrina pummeled in August 2005.
Laura was centered about 95 miles off the eastern tip of Cuba Sunday morning, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph. It was moving west-northwest at 21 mph.
A car drives on a road as Tropical Storm Laura hits Guayama, Puerto Rico. (RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP via Getty Images)
Officials in the Florida Keys, which Laura might pass over on its route into the Gulf, declared a local state of emergency and issued a mandatory evacuation order for anyone living on boats, in mobile homes and in campers. Tourists staying in hotels were warned to be aware of hazardous weather conditions and consider changing their plans starting Sunday.
Marco, meanwhile, was centered about 300 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and was moving to the north-northwest at 14 mph. It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.
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New warnings were added Sunday morning — including a storm surge warning from Morgan City, Louisiana to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and a hurricane warning from Morgan City to the mouth of the Pearl River. A tropical storm warning included Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, and metropolitan New Orleans.
A storm surge of up to 6 feet was forecast for parts of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who declared a state of emergency Friday, asked President Donald Trump for a federal emergency declaration.
“The cumulative impact of these storms will likely have much of Louisiana facing tropical storm/hurricane force impacts for a much longer period of time than it would with any one hurricane,” he wrote.
Both storms were expected to bring 3 to 6 inches of rain to areas they were passing over or near, threatening flooding.
The hurricane center said the storms were not expected to interact as the region faces an unusually active hurricane season.
“We are in unprecedented times,” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said at a news conference Saturday as he declared a state of emergency. “We are dealing with not only two potential storms in the next few hours, we are also dealing with COVID-19.”
The metro Atlanta area should will likely see the greatest impact from the storms towards the end of the week, though Beesley says those predictions are likely to change as the storms get closer to making landfall.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.