Hurricane Laura expected to be catastrophic Category 4 storm as it churns toward Louisiana, Texas

Hurricane Laura continues strengthening Wednesday morning as it moves over the central Gulf of Mexico on a crash course to impact the Gulf Coast this week as 2020’s first major hurricane bringing massive storm surge to communities.

Laura, which grew overnight to a Category 2 storm, is forecast to produce a life-threatening storm surge, extreme winds, and flash flooding over eastern Texas and Louisiana later Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said in its 5 a.m. Wednesday advisory.

“Laura is forecast to become a category 4 hurricane today, and is expected to be a major hurricane at landfall. Rapid weakening is expected after Laura makes landfall,” the National Hurricane Center said.

Meanwhile, the storm formerly known as Hurricane Marco fell apart Tuesday morning and devolved into a remnant low before the hurricane center stopped tracking it.

As of 5 a.m., Laura was a strong Category 2 hurricane with 110 mph sustained winds moving northwest at 15 mph and located about 315 miles south-southeast of Lake Charles, Louisiana. Hurricane-force winds extend out 70 miles with tropical-storm-force winds out 175 miles.

More than 385,000 residents were told to flee the Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur, and still more were ordered to evacuate low-lying southwestern Louisiana, where forecasters said more than 13 feet of storm surge topped by waves could submerge entire towns.

Laura is not expected to greatly affect Florida, although it could bring rip currents along the Panhandle.

A storm surge warning was added early Wednesday from Freeport to San Luis Pass, Texas. A storm surge watch is in effect for the mouth of the Mississippi River to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, as well as Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas, and Lake Borgne.

Forecasters said ocean water could push onto land along a more than 450-mile-long stretch of coast from Texas to Mississippi. On top of that, up to 15 inches of rain could fall in some spots in Louisiana, said National Weather Service meteorologist Donald Jones.

“The main point is that we’re going to have a significant hurricane make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday,” National Hurricane Center Deputy Director Ed Rappaport said Tuesday.

A hurricane watch is in effect for east of Intracoastal City to west of Morgan City, Louisiana. A hurricane warning is in effect for San Luis Pass, Texas, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana. A tropical storm warning is in effect for Sargent, Texas, to San Luis Pass, and east of Intracoastal City to the mouth of the Mississippi River.

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In Galveston and Port Arthur, Texas, mandatory evacuation orders went into effect at 6 a.m. Tuesday. People planning on entering official shelters were told to bring just one bag of personal belongings each, and “have a mask” to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

“If you decide to stay, you’re staying on your own,” Port Arthur Mayor Thurman Bartie said.

Officials in Houston asked residents to prepare supplies in case they lose power for a few days or need to evacuate homes along the coast. Some in the area are still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey three years ago.

State emergencies were declared in Louisiana and Mississippi, and shelters opened with cots set farther apart, among other measures designed to curb infections.

Laura’s unwelcome arrival comes just days before the Aug. 29 anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which breached the levees in New Orleans, flattened much of the Mississippi coast and killed as many as 1,800 people in 2005. Hurricane Rita then struck southwest Louisiana that Sept. 24 as a Category 3 storm.

Now southwest Louisiana again faces the threat of being hit by a major hurricane, and Rita is on the mind of Ron Leleux.

“Finally we ran out of luck in 2005 with Rita,” Leleux said from his home in Sulphur, where he served as mayor from 2002-2010. “When something like this comes up, I think people go back and it brings back a lot of bad memories.”

In Waveland, Mississippi, a coastal town devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2015, Jeremy Burke said “our biggest threat down here is the storm surge.” When Katrina struck, “the wind did do damage, but the thing that put the nail in the coffin was the storm surge,” said Burke, who owns Bay Books in nearby Bay St. Louis.

Many residents in Waveland are staying in place as Laura bears down on the coast, but they also have their cars and trucks gassed up in case the forecast grows more ominous, Burke said.

“People are prepared to possibly go at the drop of a hat,” he said. “We never take a storm for granted. We might have dodged a bullet with Marco, and obviously some people along the Gulf Coast are not going to be as blessed as us.”

Laura passed Cuba after killing nearly two dozen people on the island of Hispaniola, including 20 in Haiti and three in the Dominican Republic, where it knocked out power and caused intense flooding. The deaths reportedly included a 10-year-old girl whose home was hit by a tree and a mother and young son crushed by a collapsing wall.

Staff writers Joe Mario Pedersen, Rick Tribou, David Harris and Katie Rice contributed to this report.