Hurricane Laura marched onto the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas as a Category 4 storm early Thursday morning leaving widespread power outages and massive property damage. Power outages run from the Beaumont-Port Arthur area in Texas eastward to Lafayette, Louisiana.
The 4 a.m. report from the National Hurricane Center shows Hurricane Laura remains a major Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 120 miles per hour despite being nearly 100 miles inland. The center of the storm is located about 30 miles NNW of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and is moving nearly north (355 degrees) at about 15 mph.
Map showing power outages from Beaumont, Texas, to Lafayette, Louisiana. Energy reports more than 125,00o customers are without electricity. (Power Outage Map by Entergy)
By 6 a.m. winds decreased to about 110 miles per hour making Laura a Category 2 hurricane.
Video reports being tweeted from the Lake Charles area show massive storm damage in the downtown area with glass buildings being stripped bare.
Also in Lake Charles, the broadcast tower for a local news station, KPLC 7, collapsed under the heavy winds.
Officials in Lafayette, Louisiana, warn of potential flash flooding as Hurricane Laura continues to dump heavy rains. High winds left thousands without power.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.