Hurricane Laura devastates Lake Charles, Louisiana

Ferocious winds have produced widespread damage in Lake Charles, Louisiana overnight. Laura made landfall as a powerful category 4 hurricane near Cameron. (CNN)

One of the strongest hurricanes to impact Louisiana in the modern era, smashed into Cameron parish at 1 am central time Thursday morning. The category 4 storm with 240 km/h (150 mph) winds caused widespread devastation in the community of Lake Charles. Wind gust over 200km/h were reported, with sustained winds of up to 160km/h for several hours. The result is the complete failure of many structures, as well as office buildings with every window punched out.

I watched the coverage of Laura overnight from Lake Charles, provided by storm chaser Reed Timmer and his team. Laura was a fierce, fast-moving hurricane, with relentless powerful winds tearing apart structures. Power lines and trees are spread across just about every roadway in Lake Charles. Across southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas, over 700,000 homes and businesses are without power Thursday, in sweltering heat and humidity.

National Weather Service radar from Lake Charles showing the eye of Laura crossing the coast at 1AM Thursday morning. Later as the storm approached Lake Charles, the radar was destroyed. (NWS)

So far three US fatalities have been reported as a result of Laura, from trees falling on homes. I have found very little information on Cameron, where Laura made landfall. It is estimated that the storm surge near Cameron was around 10 feet, less than expected, but still a significant amount of water. Search and rescue crews and First Responders are still assessing the damage along the coast. Elsewhere in Louisiana and Texas, surge flooding did occur, but was less severe than expected.

As of noon, Laura had been downgraded to a tropical storm, loosing steam as all storms do when the move inland. Laura is racing off to the north at 24km/h, expected to produce strong winds, torrential rain and isolated tornadoes into portions of northern Louisiana and Arkansas. Laura is then expected to move across the middle Atlantic region by the weekend. 

ATLANTIC CANADA IMPACTS POSSIBLE

Once Laura moves offshore, the storm main gain some strength and threaten Nova Scotia and Newfoundland by early next week, with gale force winds and heavy rainfall. The progress of what is left of Laura will need to be watched closely by Atlantic Canada residents.

A Cameron Parish Sheriff Deputy braves the outer bands of Laura on Wednesday afternoon. (CNN/AP)

Dangerous hurricane Laura rapidly strengthening

Satellite image of extremely dangerous hurricane Laura located over the central Gulf of Mexico early Wednesday morning. Laura is expected to become a Category 4 hurricane today before moving inland over extreme southwest Louisiana tonight. (NOAA)

Hurricane Laura is expected to deepen rapidly today into a monster category 4 hurricane as the storm approaches the northern Gulf Coast. Early Wednesday morning, the center of Laura was located 540 km southeast of Galveston, Texas, moving northwest at 24km/h. Peak winds overnight have increased to 175km/h (110mph). Further intensification is likely today as Laura moves over the very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  

Widespread hurricane and storm warnings are now in effect from the upper Texas coast eastward towards Mississippi.

Laura is forecast to make landfall late this evening or overnight, with catastrophic storm surge expected to the right of where the center comes onshore. A surge of 12-15 feet is forecast along the southwest Louisiana coast, including low-lying Cameron Parish. Preparations and evacuations are being rushed to completion this morning. Tropical storm force winds and water will begin arriving at the coast early this afternoon.

Hurricane hunter aircraft have reported that Laura has become a larger storm overnight, with hurricane and tropical storm winds extending outward far from the center of the storm. Strong winds, torrential rain and flash flooding will impact a large portion of Texas and Louisiana including metro Houston tonight and Thursday. Those conditions will spread into northern Louisiana, southeast Oklahoma and Arkansas on Friday.

I will post further updates on hurricane Laura later today.