Hurricane Laura - Gulf Coast

Pearce

Jedi Master
Just some updates on this storm:

Hurricane Laura shutters over 84% of US oil production in Gulf of Mexico

America’s largest oil refinery in crosshairs of Hurricane Laura







Coming three years to the day after Hurricane Harvey, and 15 years after Katrina which was followed by Rita one month later. I lived in the direct path of Rita, and until Laura intensified it was looking like an exact replay. Now that it's upgraded to a cat4 it's going to be much worse.

The destruction left behind from Rita was catastrophic. I can only pray my friends and family that are going to ride it out tonight will be safe. I'm hoping to be able to go in to the area as soon as possible to assist, and so should have more info in the coming days.

If it's anything like before, it will be many months without power, and trees snapped like twigs as far as the eye can see.
 
Coming three years to the day after Hurricane Harvey, and 15 years after Katrina which was followed by Rita one month later. I lived in the direct path of Rita, and until Laura intensified it was looking like an exact replay. Now that it's upgraded to a cat4 it's going to be much worse.

The destruction left behind from Rita was catastrophic. I can only pray my friends and family that are going to ride it out tonight will be safe. I'm hoping to be able to go in to the area as soon as possible to assist, and so should have more info in the coming days.

If it's anything like before, it will be many months without power, and trees snapped like twigs as far as the eye can see.

Yep, this could be bad. Laura's maximum sustained winds jumped from 75 mph to 140 mph in the 24 hours ending 1 p.m. CDT Wednesday. That increase in maximum sustained winds easily meets the definition of rapid intensification in a hurricane according to the Weather Channel.

CNBC report:


Laura has strengthened into a category 3 hurricane and is expected to strengthen to category 4 later on Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. More than half a million people were ordered to flee the Gulf Coast on Tuesday as Laura strengthened into a hurricane that forecasters said could slam Texas and Louisiana with ferocious winds, heavy flooding and the power to push seawater miles inland.
 
I lived in the direct path of Rita

That was my thought. I was living in Arizona at the time. Rita followed on the heals of Katrina but swung eastward towards Port Author/ Orange. Not too long afterwards I heard a harrowing account of a man who lived through Rita. He was staying at the Hilton where I worked and was down at the bar I was tending. I never forgot his story. He was reduced to lying on the floor in his house with a mattress pulled over top of him scared beyond measure. He said he had been to war but it was nothing like what he experienced with Rita.
 
It looks like they expect winds to top 150mph when it makes landfall, and Rita was only 115mph so I'm expecting worse damage this time. I don't live there anymore (Icke was my final straw) but about half of my family still does; some have evacuated and others are staying.

I didn't stay during Rita so I've no harrowing tales of living through one that large, but I do have horrible memories of living in the aftermath. But also memories of people coming together and overcoming the hardship.

FEMA has already been activated in the regions as well as the National Guard, and I'm already remembering the ration lines being handled by the military suits that I had to endure before: only so much gas allowed per person, MREs because actual groceries existing for months was pure wishful thinking..

I'm hearing rumblings that Port Arthur and Bridge City may be uninhabitable for some time after this. Gas prices are going to rise for sure. They're saying have enough supplies for each person to survive 3 days but during Rita we didn't get power back for almost two months!

Governor Abbott released a statement saying from 7pm tonight till 9am tomorrow the emergency services would not be accessible and that you are on your own.


Texas governor says it will be impossible for emergency crews to perform rescues between 7 p.m. Wednesday and 9 a.m. Thursday.
 
oh boy, stay safe Pearce,

The only experience I have with hurricanes is with Sandy back in 2012 and I'm all the way up in the north east, so it truly wasn't bad other than the nuisance of gas lines to get to work and a few flooded areas around the state.

keep us posted when you can and may you and your loved ones not get impacted too badly.

Edit: Grammar
 
Gotta say--Laura looks really scary. Makes one wonder what's going on in 4th density. Prayers that you and your family stay safe @Pearce. I wonder if the PTB will parlay any damage that Laura does on petroleum into gas shortages as they already engineered breaks in the supply chain for food.
 
Thanks everyone for the well-wishes, fortunately for Texas I think the damage was mitigated some by the storm turning more north upon landfall, but that means unfortunately Louisiana was wrecked and the damage there is much worse.

Here's aerial footage of the aftermath

Reports so far from Southeast Texas are more positive than most people I think expected, but still there are certain areas that got hit hard. My family that were there are unharmed - a lot of trees downed and widespread power outages (140,000+ people, though according to my cousin the City of Beaumont already had their power restored so they are working fast!)

The storm surge on the coast at least in Texas was "only" about 9ft instead of the projected 12-15ft and it seems like the flooding was less than also expected as they are already reopening entry into those areas of Texas.

There has been one confirmed death, a 14yo girl who died when a tree fell on her house.

 
Gotta say--Laura looks really scary. Makes one wonder what's going on in 4th density. Prayers that you and your family stay safe @Pearce. I wonder if the PTB will parlay any damage that Laura does on petroleum into gas shortages as they already engineered breaks in the supply chain for food.
Of course they will. Prepare for lineups. They have you by the short hair. The system is a failure. In fact, there are a lot of failing systems in place that have reached the end of usability.
 
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More info


More than 100 thousand without power after Hurricane Laura slams Texas coast

BEAUMONT, Texas (KFDM) — More than 100 thousand homes in southeast Texas and Louisiana are without power after Hurricane Laura made its way through the area early Thursday morning.


Hurricane Laura cuts power to over 650K Texas, Louisiana customers as storm barrels toward Arkansas

More than 650,000 customers were without power in Texas and Louisiana Thursday, as catastrophic storm surges and extreme winds battered coastal areas under evacuation orders, and a weakening Hurricane Laura continues on its path north toward Arkansas.

Hurricane Laura moved ashore before 1 a.m. CDT just east of the Texas-Louisiana line near Cameron Parish, La., with the strength of a Category 4 hurricane, maximum sustained winds at about 150 mph, and a minimum central pressure of 938 mb.

More than 134,000 customers were without power in Texas, with those in the southeastern part of the state in Jefferson, Orange and Hardin Counties the most affected. More than 518,000 customers were suffering from outages in Louisiana, as the eye passed over Lake Charles, ripping off roofs, downing trees and bringing high floodwaters.


And here is a local station driving around and getting video
 
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