Hurricane Laura has ripped through southwestern Louisiana, destroying buildings in the city of Lake Charles and killing four people as the most powerful storm to hit the state.
A street is strewn with debris and downed power lines after Hurricane Laura passed through Lake Charles, Louisiana. Photo: AFP
The hurricane's first reported US 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.
Three other people have also died after being crushed by falling trees. A chemical plant fire has ignited, sending a chlorine-infused plume of smoke skyward 15 hours after the hurricane's landfall.
Laura caused less mayhem than forecasts predicted - but officials said it remained a dangerous storm and that it would take days to assess the damage. At least 867,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas remained without power.
"This was the most powerful storm to ever make landfall in Louisiana," Edwards told a news conference. "It's continuing to cause damage and life-threatening conditions."
Laura's maximum sustained winds of 241km/h upon landfall easily bested Hurricane Katrina, which sparked deadly levee breaches in New Orleans in 2005.
The National Hurricane Centre said Laura's eye had crossed into southern Arkansas late yesterday and was heading to the northeast. The storm could dump up to 178mm of rain on parts of Arkansas, likely causing flash floods.
Fears death toll could climb
Laura's howling winds levelled buildings across a wide swath of the state and a wall of water that was 4.6 metres high crashed into tiny Cameron, Louisiana, where the hurricane made landfall around 1am (US time).
A calamitous 7-metre storm surge that had been forecast to move 64 km inland was avoided when Laura tacked east just before landfall, Edwards said. That meant a mighty gush of water was not fully pushed up the Calcasieu Ship Channel, which would have given the storm surge an easy path far inland.
Tropical-force winds were felt in nearly every parish across Louisiana - and Edwards warned that the death toll could climb as search and rescue missions increase.
He told residents in the area to shelter in place, close doors and windows and turn off air conditioners as authorities investigated.
Cleanup begins
Residents of Lake Charles heard Laura's winds and the sound of breaking glass as the storm passed through the city of 78,000 with wind gusts up to 200km/h in the hour after landfall.
National Guard troops cleared debris from roads in Lake Charles. There were downed power lines in streets around the city, and the winds tipped a few semi-trucks onto their sides.
The windows of the city's 22-storey Capital One Tower were blown out, street signs were toppled and pieces of wooden fence and debris from collapsed buildings lay scattered in the flooded streets, video footage on Twitter and Snapchat showed.
A producer for the WSAZ news channel tweeted before and after images of the tower:
Lake Charles resident Borden Wilson, a 33-year-old paediatrician, was anxious about his return home after evacuating to Minden, Louisiana.
"I never even boarded up my windows. I didn't think to do that. This is the first hurricane I've experienced. I just hope my house is fine," he said in a telephone interview.
In the small town of Starks, about 35km northwest of Lake Charles, pine trees strewn across roads and homes were the biggest challenge in cleaning up.
Reverend Karl Smith carefully inspected the damage done to buildings around his First Pentecostal Church. He rode out the storm in the cellar of his house - and had to cut through trees so that he and his wife could get out.
"We just had trees thrown everywhere," Smith said. "It's a big mess."
A man looks at damage inside the Capitol One Bank Tower, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Photo: AFP
The NHC warned that high water levels would persist along the Gulf Coast for several hours as Laura moved north and then northeast.
Besides threatening life, the storm slammed the heart of the US oil industry, forcing oil rigs and refineries to shut down production.
The Port of Lake Charles remained closed as workers were unable to enter or exit the facility due to downed power lines and trees.
The port avoided significant flooding but power was out, manager of security and safety Ed Manint said.
A damaged house in Lake Charles. Photo: AFP
'Less surge than we thought'
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Pete Gaynor told Fox News that the agency would make storm damage assessments today and had the resources to respond to the storm now, adding he expected to see significant damage from wind and building damage.
"I think we're generally fortunate - less surge than we thought," Gaynor said.
The NHC had predicted earlier this week that the predicted storm surge would be "unsurvivable". While the worst projections had not materialised, damaging winds and flooding rainfall would continue spreading inland later today, the NHC said.
US President Donald Trump has approved an emergency declaration for Arkansas, the White House said, authorising federal officials to coordinate relief efforts and freeing up federal funds. He had approved an emergency declaration for Texas on Monday.
Trump was scheduled to visit FEMA's headquarters in early afternoon to receive a briefing on the hurricane.
The eastern coastal counties of Texas that had braced for the worst were largely spared Laura's rage. Galveston's acting mayor, Craig Brown, told MSNBC he was cancelling the island city's evacuation after the storm turned more toward Louisiana. The mayor of Beaumont, Texas, Becky Ames, told MSNBC the situation was "manageable."
Around 650,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana and Texas were without power, and local utilities in the storm's path warned outage numbers would climb as the storm marched inland.
- Reuters / BBC