Our live coverage has ended, but you can read more about the storm below.
Hurricane Laura knocked out most of the water service in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Thursday.
“We’ve got some plants that are open, but it’s not enough to serve the entire city. The pressure is in the single digits,” City Administrator John Cardone told CNN.
Cardone said engineering consultants are coming to the city to help fix the system, which they hope to have to at least 45% capacity on Friday. The problem, according to the city administrator, is not just a loss of power, but also the potential for broken pipes all over the city.
“There were a lot of uprooted trees on private property,” said Cardone. “If they got the water lines on the private property, we’d need to go there and locate it. If people are evacuated, we don’t know where the leaks are.”
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Health Alert Network advisory Thursday warning of the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura, which slammed into the Louisiana coast early Thursday as a powerful Category 4 storm.
The storm has knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses and people could turn to “alternate power sources such as gasoline generators and may use propane or charcoal grills for cooking,” the CDC said.
“If used or placed improperly, these sources can lead to CO (carbon monoxide) buildup inside buildings, garages, or campers and poison the people and animals inside,” the CDC said.
The agency is advising doctors in the hurricane zone to pay attention to symptoms that could be related to CO poisoning. They can include headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, weakness, chest pain and altered mental status. Symptoms with no fever with symptoms, a history of exposure or multiple people with similar complaints are red flags for carbon monoxide exposure.
Babies, pregnant women, the elderly and people with chronic conditions, such as anemia, respiratory illness or heart disease are most at risk for CO poisoning, the agency said.
“Appropriate and prompt diagnostic testing and treatment are crucial to reduce morbidity and prevent mortality from CO poisoning,” the CDC said in the health advisory. “Identifying and mitigating the CO source is critical in preventing other poisoning cases.”
Six people died Thursday in Louisiana as a result of Hurricane Laura, according to the state’s Department of Health.
Two of the victims were in Calcasieu Parish, while there were also fatalities in Acadia, Allen, Jackson and Vernon Parishes, spokesperson Alyson Neel tells CNN.
The victims range in age from 14 to 68.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he is preparing for Tropical Storm Laura to hit the state by pre-deploying search and rescue teams as well as members of the state’s National Guard.
He said that 30,000 residents are currently without power in his state but that he expects that number to rise.
Hutchinson said no one has died, but he urged everyone to stay alert.
“We’re cautioning everybody to pay attention, be safe, but the danger will really be coming in the next 24 hours and even after that with the flash flooding,” he said.
At least 806,828 customers remain without power in Louisiana and Texas as of 3:20 p.m. ET, according to PowerOutage.US.
Louisiana is experiencing the most significant outages from Hurricane Laura.
Here’s a breakdown of the outages in both states:
President Trump says he’ll head to the Gulf Coast “Saturday or Sunday” to survey damage from Hurricane Laura.
During a briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s national headquarters on Thursday, Trump also said he considered pushing back his speech to the Republican National Convention in light of the hurricane.
“But now it turned out we got a little bit lucky. It was very big, it was very powerful but it passed quickly. And so everything is going to be on schedule,” he said, referring back to his nomination acceptance speech tonight.
Trump said he would “probably” make the trip on Saturday or Sunday, and head to “Texas and Louisiana and maybe an additional stop.”
He concluded by thanking FEMA and local law enforcement.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said that while Hurricane Laura didn’t bring “the absolute catastrophic damage that we thought that was likely,” the state was still hard-hit.
“We have sustained a tremendous amount of damage,” he said at a news conference.
Edwards said at least four people in the state have died as a result of the storm. All four deaths were due to trees falling.
Regarding a chemical plant fire near Lake Charles, Edwards said, “We are doing everything we can to get that situation under control.” He also said that the I-10 bridge in the area is closed for inspection after a casino barge broke away and made contact with the bridge.
Edwards said a priority was moving people that needed shelter into hotel or motel rooms due to the need to social distance because of Covid-19.
Despite damage to home and properties, Vermilion Parish Sheriff Mike Couvillon announced he’s lifting the curfew with immediate effect.
Vermilion Parish is just east of Cameron, Louisiana, where Laura made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane earlier today.
Couvillon said:
Couvillon said “some homes and properties have taken on water or have been damaged due to wind and surge,” adding that everyone should use “courtesy for their neighbors,” and help people “restore their lives.”
As first responders were deployed to the area to assess the damage, Couvillon said, “Though we are not out of the woods yet, through communication and preparation all of these entities were able to deploy assets immediately and begin the process of getting normalcy back in everyone’s lives.”
“We know how important it is to return to your residence and check on pets, livestock, and access damages at your home. I also would like to thank all of the utility companies that are working diligently to restore our power,” his post on Facebook said.
New Jersey Office of Emergency Management is sending a task force to Louisiana to assist with rescue and recovery efforts following Hurricane Laura, Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted.
This team has been deployed seven times as a team for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Urban Search & Rescue, the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management tweeted.
The mayor tweeted a short video of crews preparing to leave Wall, New Jersey, earlier today.
Watch the moment:
Tropical Storm Laura is about 65 miles east northeast of Shreveport and has winds of 65 mph, according to the National Weather Service’s latest forecast advisory.
The center is now warning of “flooding rainfall and strong winds spreading inland over northern Louisiana and southeastern Arkansas.”
“High water levels persist along portions of the Gulf Coast,” the center said in its 2 p.m. ET update.
Here’s a look at Laura’s latest predicted path:
Tropical Storm Laura is impacting operations at at least 13 airports that American Airlines serves, a travel alert from the airline said Thursday.
The alert says that any customers traveling to, through, or from the following airports may have their change fee waived if certain guidelines are met.
Laura has now weakened below hurricane strength and is a 70 mph tropical storm, according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center.
The storm, which became a hurricane for the first time at 8:15 a.m. ET on Tuesday morning, went through a period of rapid intensification and made landfall overnight as a Category 4, 150 mph storm.
The center of Laura is currently located over northern Louisiana and will track into Arkansas today and continue to weaken.
Remember: Even though Laura is now just a tropical storm, it is still producing a number of hazards including tropical storm force winds, isolated tornadoes and heavy rain. Rainfall totals of 4-8 inches are forecast over the Mississippi Valley and Ohio Valley into the weekend, which will lead to flash flooding.
Clean up could take weeks or months over the hardest-hit areas. There are already 750,000 customers currently without power, according to PowerOutage.us in Louisiana and Texas.
The Louisiana State Police Emergency Services Unit (ESU) issued a statement confirming their technicians are working a hazardous material incident involving a chlorine leak originating from the BioLab chemical manufacturing facility in Westlake, Louisiana.
They said LSP ESU personnel are coordinating with plant managers to contain the leak and urged citizens to follow emergency orders from local officials.
Read the full statement below:
The National Hurricane Center forecast the Louisiana landfall of Hurricane Laura on the mark nearly four days in advance of the storm hitting the US coast.
By Sunday morning — when the storm was only a 50 mph tropical storm over Haiti — the National Hurricane Center was projecting the storm would make landfall in the early hours of Thursday morning in far western Louisiana.
That is a remarkably accurate forecast – especially considering that at that time the National Hurricane Center was also dealing with Hurricane Marco developing in the Gulf of Mexico as well.
Some context: The average error in the NHC track three to four days out is around 100 miles. The error for the forecast for Laura issued Sunday morning? Literally zero. The centerline of the forecast on Sunday projected Laura crossing onto land in the exact point that the eye made landfall at 2 a.m. ET, this morning.
It should be noted that later issuances of the forecast did move a few miles east and west over the next few days as the National Hurricane Center forecasters continued to evaluate the computer forecast models. Still, the Louisiana/Texas border region continued to be the focus for the storm’s landfall.
As for the intensity forecast for Laura? The same Sunday morning forecast showed Laura making landfall with winds of at least 100 mph, a Category 2 hurricane. Laura’s landfall intensity was actually 150 mph, making it a Category 4 storm.
So the forecast intensity error was 50 mph, considerably worse than the 15-20 mph average error – but it should be noted that the National Hurricane Center was consistent in their forecast discussions that Laura could strengthen significantly more over the Gulf of Mexico’s warm waters.
Subsequent forecasts through Monday and Tuesday zeroed in on the fact that Laura would likely become a stronger, and eventually major, hurricane.
The extent that Laura rapidly intensified on Wednesday was extreme, something only a small handful of storms have done in the more than 150 years they have been tracked. Hurricane researchers and forecasters will be studying for years to come to work to make future forecasts even better.
A Facebook post from the Beauregard Parish Sheriff’s Office said they are “experiencing very high call volume at this time and understand the dire situation the parish is currently in.”
BPSO is asking residents to “limit calls to things or situations of the highest level of emergency.”
BPSO said they “want nothing more than to help each and every one of you,” but they are asking for patience so they can keep everyone safe.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards confirmed that a chemical fire is burning at a plant in southeast Louisiana. He urged all residents to shelter in place, turn off air conditioning units and to wait further directions from local officials.
Emergency alerts pinged cellphones in the Lake Charles area with the following message:
The Parish office of Emergency management was unable to provide details at this point regarding the incident.
CNN crews in the area saw a large plume of smoke coming from a facility near I-10 in Lake Charles.
According to a statement from Greta Gustafson with the American Red Cross, “last night, more than 10,000 people across Texas and Louisiana were provided a safe place to stay by local officials in emergency lodgings, including shelters and, in some circumstances, hotels.”
The Red Cross is providing blankets, cots and personal protective equipment for those in need. They are also on stand-by in Arkansas as the catastrophic storm continues to move north.
More than 400 Red Cross disaster workers are on the ground, with another 400 mobilized virtually, Gustafson said.
Three deaths have been reported in Louisiana as a result of Hurricane Laura, a spokesperson for the state tells CNN
Another man died in Jackson Parish, when a tree fell on a home he was in, Steel said.
The governor’s office had previously confirmed the death of a 14-year-old girl in Vernon Perish when a tree hit fell on her home.
An “incident” is being investigated in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Mike Steele, spokesperson for the state office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, told CNN. Steele said that State Police and the State Fire Marshall are the lead agencies for hazmat incidents.
Emergency alerts pinged cellphones in the Lake Charles area with the following message:
The parish’s office of emergency management was unable to provide details at this point regarding the incident. A spokesperson for the governor’s office said, “We are looking into it and will release details when they are available.”
CNN crews in the area saw a large plume of smoke coming from a facility near I-10 in Lake Charles.
Hurricane Laura remains a Category 1 storms as it travels northward through Louisiana, according to a noon ET update from the National Hurricane Center.
The storm current has winds of 75 mph.
“Damaging winds and flooding rainfall spreading inland over central and northern portions of Louisiana,” the center said in the update. “High water levels persist along portions of the Gulf Coast.”
