Hurricane Laura hit the US state of Louisiana overnight Wednesday through Thursday. The damage is just beginning to be discovered.
In the United States, Louisiana wakes up Thursday to discover the damage caused by Hurricane Laura. (Thursday, August 27, 2020)
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–The damage caused by the passage of the hurricane is significant. (Thursday, August 27, 2020)
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Louisiana was expecting the worst at dawn on Thursday before it could see the extent of the damage caused by the overnight arrival of Laura, one of the most severe hurricanes to ever hit the state.
It made landfall in Category 4 (of 5) around 1 local time (8 a.m. Swiss time) at the coastal town of Cameron, near the border with Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico, with sustained winds of 240 km / h, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
That makes it the most powerful to hit Louisiana in over a century and a half, according to data compiled by University of Colorado hurricane researcher Philip Klotzbach.
Scenes of desolation
As day began to rise over the region, the first images showed the usual scenes of desolation: trees and power lines on the ground, streets flooded or covered with debris … More than half a million people were without electricity. Thursday morning in Louisiana and Texas, according to the site PowerOutage.us.
Videos posted on his Twitter account by “storm chaser” Reed Timmer testified to the violence of the winds, which tore the windows of several buildings in the center of Lake Charles, a town in Louisiana known for its oil refineries, the main resource. economy of the region. “The damage is unfortunately significant and potentially catastrophic further south,” he wrote.
Downgraded to Category 2
According to the latest NHC bulletin at 2 p.m. Swiss time (12 p.m. GMT), the hurricane weakened considerably after making landfall, with sustained winds of 160 km / h, which downgraded it to Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which has five.
But meteorologists continued to warn of rising waters, far inland, as Laura continued northward toward Arkansas, which she is due to reach next night. “It will take several days after the storm has passed for the waters to recede,” warns the NHC.
–Hurricane Laura is the most powerful to hit Louisiana in over a century and a half.
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Fifteen years after Katrina
Fifteen years almost to the day after Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and left its mark on Louisiana, local authorities called on the population to be extremely careful.
The NHC had encouraged residents to prepare for Laura’s arrival as if it were a tornado, staying away from windows, under a table, and protected with mattresses or blankets.
Evacuation orders
More than 1.5 million people in total were under evacuation orders in Louisiana and Texas, one of the US states most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. New protocols have also had to be put in place in emergency accommodation centers in order to be able to enforce barrier gestures as effectively as possible.
The hurricane season in the Atlantic, which officially lasts from June 1 to November 30, promises to be particularly intense this year. The National Hurricane Center expects 25 lows. Laura is already the twelfth. It had already caused significant flooding in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, resulting in the deaths of at least 25 people.
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