Laura strengthened Wednesday into a menacing Category 4 hurricane, raising fears of a 20-foot storm surge that forecasters said would be “unsurvivable” and capable of sinking entire communities. Authorities implored coastal residents of Texas and Louisiana to evacuate and worried that not enough had fled. The storm grew nearly 70% in power in just 24 hours to a size the National Hurricane Center called “extremely dangerous.” Drawing energy from the warm Gulf of Mexico waters, the system was on track to arrive late Wednesday or early Thursday as the most powerful hurricane to strike the U.S. so far this year. “It looks like it’s in full beast mode,” said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. “Which is not what you want to see if you’re in its way.” One major Louisiana highway already had standing water as Laura’s outer bands moved ashore. Winds began picking up as shoppers rushed into a grocery store in low-lying Delcambre, filling carts with chips and beer. Austin Domingues, 26, said his wife would likely evacuate, but he planned to stay put at his father’s farm, where the house is 14 feet off the ground. Hurricane #Laura is expected to bring 9+ feet of storm surge to parts of Louisiana and Texas. If you’re told to evacuate, you need to do so before it’s too late. pic.twitter.com/vhPvaN50f0 — The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) August 25, 2020 “I don’t know if it’s too smart, but we’re going to stay just in case we need to help people out,” he said. With time running out, both Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards expressed concerns that not enough coastal residents were taking the dire predictions seriously. In Lake Charles, National Guard members drove school buses around neighborhoods, offering to pick up families. Abbott warned that families who do not get out of harm’s way could be cut off from help long after the storm makes landfall overnight. The National Hurricane Center kept raising its estimate of Laura’s storm surge, from 10 feet just a couple of days ago to twice that size — a height that forecasters said would be especially deadly. Forecasters say Hurricane #Laura, now a massive Category 4, may bring ‘unsurvivable’ storm surge to Texas-Louisiana border pic.twitter.com/sDbAArGe5p — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 26, 2020 A Category 4 hurricane can cause damage so catastrophic that power outages may last for months in places, and wide areas could be uninhabitable for weeks or months. The threat of such devastation posed a new disaster-relief challenge for a government already straining to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. By Wednesday afternoon, Laura had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) as it churned about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Lake Charles, Louisiana, moving northwest at 16 mph (26 kph). Forecasters predict winds will reach at least 145 mph winds but may weaken ever so slightly before landfall. “Heed the advice of your local authorities. If they tell you to go, go! Your life depends on it today,” said Joel Cline, tropical program coordinator at the National Weather Service. “It’s a serious day and you need to listen to them.” On Twitter, President Donald Trump also urged coastal residents to heed local officials. Hurricane warnings were issued from San Luis Pass, Texas, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana, and […]

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