Hurricane Laura Now A Category 4 Storm, May Bring ‘Unsurvivable’ Surge To Gulf Coast

Hurricane Laura is quickly gaining speed as she moves across the Gulf Coast, the Weather Channel reports, opening up the possibility that Laura could become a category 4 — or even a category 5 — hurricane before she makes her projected landfall somewhere between New Orleans, Louisiana, and Houston, Texas.

The Weather Channel has labeled Laura’s inevitable strike, “potentially catastrophic,” and Fox News reports that the storm could bring with it a record-breaking, potentially “unsurvivable” storm surge to much of the Gulf Coast before it even touches land.

“Hurricane Laura has strengthened into a Category 4 as it heads for a destructive landfall near the Texas and Louisiana border Wednesday night into early Thursday morning. A catastrophic storm surge and damaging winds will batter the region and a threat of flooding rain and strong winds will extend well inland,” the Weather Channel notes. “Residents along the upper Texas and southwest Louisiana coasts should finish preparations now for a major hurricane strike. Follow any evacuation orders issued by local or state officials.”

Laura is about 175 miles south of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and is moving northwest at 16 miles per hour. Wind speeds currently measure around 140 mph, putting Laura on the threshold of being a category 4 storm. Visible satellite pictures show Laura with a massive “eye” measuring nearly 20 miles wide — a feature of “intense hurricanes” per meteorologists.

https://twitter.com/StuOstro/status/1298718019057643522

Water levels along the Gulf Coast are already rising and meteorologists following the storm believe some areas could be completely underwater as early as Wednesday night.

“The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said Wednesday after that Laura, now a major hurricane has exploded into a Category 4 storm, threatening to bring life-threatening storm surge, extreme winds, and flash flooding over eastern Texas and Louisiana,” Fox News reported Wednesday.

“A life-threatening and ‘unsurvivable’ storm surge of 7 to 20 feet will inundate the coast just east of the trajectory of the center of the storm. A storm surge warning is in effect from Freeport, Texas to the mouth of the Mississippi River,” the outlet continued. “According to the NHC, the worst of the storm surge will be along the immediate coast near and to the right of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by ‘large and destructive waves.'”

The storm surge, the National Hurricane Center noted separately, could touch communities as far as 30 miles inland from the immediate coastline.

A number of social media users were already uploading photos of storm damage.

Cameron LA a few hours apart as #Laura approaches Louisiana pic.twitter.com/zpjPKlJbrV

— Mark Sudduth (@hurricanetrack) August 26, 2020

Hurricane Laura is the first major hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic season. The storm is now a Category 4.

See photos as Louisiana prepares and starts taking on water: https://t.co/0ubWhkNbxg pic.twitter.com/7dR70XktGy

— NOLA.com (@NOLAnews) August 26, 2020

The last major hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana was not Katrina but Rita, which struck eastern Louisiana just weeks after Katrina devastated New Orleans. “At peak intensity, Rita was stronger than all but three other Atlantic Basin hurricanes, joining the elite sub-900 millibar minimum surface pressure club,” the Weather Channel notes, and it caused waves as high as 15 feet in some areas.

President Donald Trump noted on Twitter that the White House is monitoring the situation closely.

“Hurricane Laura is a very dangerous and rapidly intensifying hurricane,” he tweeted, urging those in the storm’s path to evacuate immediately.