Laura blasts Gulf Coast with wind, rain and wall of seawater

ATLANTA - Hurricane Laura pounded the Gulf Coast with ferocious wind and torrential rain and unleashed a wall of seawater that could push 40 miles inland as the Category 4 storm roared ashore Thursday in Louisiana near the Texas border. At least one person was killed.

LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA - AUGUST 27: A person is seen walking through Capitol One Bank Tower with its windows blown out in the downtown area after Hurricane Laura passed through on August 27, 2020 in Lake Charles, Louisiana . The hurricane hit with p

Expand

Laura battered a tall building in Lake Charles, blowing out windows as glass and debris flew to the ground. Police spotted a floating casino that came unmoored and hit a bridge. But hours after the hurricane made landfall, the wind and rain were still blowing too hard for authorities to check for survivors.

It's now a Category 1 storm, but still very dangerous as it moves inland.

LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA - AUGUST 27: A street is seen strewn with debris and downed power lines after Hurricane Laura passed through the area on August 27, 2020 in Lake Charles, Louisiana . The hurricane hit with powerful winds causing extensive dama

Expand

As of 11 a.m. Thursday, Laura was located northwest of Alexandria, Louisiana, bringing a threat for flooding and possible tornadoes. The Cat. 1 hurricane was moving about 15 mph with 75 mph maximum sustained winds, which are weakening exponentially.

People walk past a destroyed building after the passing of Hurricane Laura in Lake Charles, Louisiana on August 27, 2020. - Hurricane Laura slammed into the southern US state of Louisiana Thursday and the monster category 4 storm prompted warnings of

Expand

Hurricane Laura became the strongest hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 on Wednesday afternoon.

The National Hurricane Center said the storm, which intensified rapidly Wednesday before plowing into land with sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph), came ashore at 2 a.m. EDT as a Category 4 hurricane near Cameron, a 400-person community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of the Texas border.

More than 580,000 coastal residents were under orders to flee in the largest evacuation since the coronavirus pandemic began and many did, filling hotels and sleeping in cars since officials didn’t want to open mass shelters and worsen the spread of COVID-19.

But in Cameron Parish, where Laura came ashore, officials said at least 150 people refused pleas to leave and planned to weather the storm in everything from elevated homes to recreational vehicles. The result could be deadly since forecasters said the parish could be completely covered by ocean water.

“It’s a very sad situation,” said Ashley Buller, assistant director of emergency preparedness. “We did everything we could to encourage them to leave.”

Forecasters expected a weakened Laura to move northward through Louisiana and cause widespread flash flooding in states far from the coast. After turning eastward and reaching the Atlantic Ocean, it could again become a tropical storm and threaten the Northeast.

SABINE PASS, TX - AUGUST 27: Flooding caused by Hurricane Laura on August 27, 2020 in Sabine Pass, Texas. Hurricane Laura came ashore bringing rain and high winds to the eastern part of the state. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)

Laura hit the U.S. after killing nearly two dozen people on the island of Hispaniola, including 20 in Haiti and three in the Dominican Republic, where it knocked out power and caused intense flooding.

Laura was the seventh named storm to strike the U.S. this year, setting a new record for U.S. landfalls by the end of August. The old record was six in 1886 and 1916, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.