Hurricane Laura slams southwest Louisiana
A resident surveys what is left of his uncle’s barber shop
One dead; Category 4 storm knocks out power to 650,000 on US south coast.
#BEAUMONT, TEXASHurricane Laura barrelled through southwest Louisiana , destroying buildings in the city of Lake Charles and killing a 14-yearold girl after making landfall early on Thursday as one of the most powerful storms to hit the state.
The hurricane's first reportedUS fatality was a 14-year-old girl in Leesville, Louisiana, who died when a tree fell on her house, a spokeswoman for Governor John Bel Edwards said.
Residents of Lake Charles heard Laura's winds howling and the sound of breaking glass as the storm passed through the city of 78,000 with winds of 137 km per hour and gusts up to 206 kmph in the hour after landfall.
The windows of the city’s 22-floorCapital One Tower were blown out, street signs were toppled and pieces of wooden fence and debris from collapsed buildings lay scattered in the streets, video footage on Twitter and Snapchat showed.
Laura made landfall just before 1 am as a Category 4 storm packing winds of 240 kmph in the small town of Cameron, Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Cameron Parish, where Laura made landfall, has a population of just under 7,000 and is home to a national wildlife refuge. The marshland there is particularly vulnerable to a storm surge of ocean water.
“This is one of the strongest storms to impact that section of coastline,” said David Roth, aNational Weather Service forecaster .
Besides threatening life, the storm slammed the heart of the US oil industry, forcing oil rigs and refineries to shut down production.
Around 600,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana and Texas were without power early Thursday, and local utilities in the storm's path warned the outage numbers would climb as the storm marched inland.
#BEAUMONT, TEXAS
The hurricane's first reported
“We do expect that there could be more fatalities,” the spokeswoman, Christina Stephens, said on Twitter.
Residents of Lake Charles heard Laura's winds howling and the sound of breaking glass as the storm passed through the city of 78,000 with winds of 137 km per hour and gusts up to 206 kmph in the hour after landfall.
The windows of the city’s 22-floor
This building’s windows were blown out by the hurricane
Laura made landfall just before 1 am as a Category 4 storm packing winds of 240 kmph in the small town of Cameron, Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Cameron Parish, where Laura made landfall, has a population of just under 7,000 and is home to a national wildlife refuge. The marshland there is particularly vulnerable to a storm surge of ocean water.
“This is one of the strongest storms to impact that section of coastline,” said David Roth, a
Besides threatening life, the storm slammed the heart of the US oil industry, forcing oil rigs and refineries to shut down production.
Around 600,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana and Texas were without power early Thursday, and local utilities in the storm's path warned the outage numbers would climb as the storm marched inland.
