PORT ARTHUR, Texas--Hurricane Laura roared toward the Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a massive Category 4 storm and was expected to cause catastrophic damage and "unsurvivable storm surge" along the Texas and Louisiana border, the National Hurricane Center said.
Laura, located 155 miles (250 km) south-southeast of Port Arthur on Wednesday afternoon, had maximum sustained winds of 145 miles per hour (230 km per hour) and was expected to strengthen more in the hours before landfall late Wednesday, the Miami-based forecaster said. The oil-refining town of Port Arthur was directly in Laura's path, the NHC forecasted.
The city of 54,000 was a ghost town on Wednesday afternoon, with just a couple of gas stations and a liquor store open for business. "People need their vodka," said Janaka Balasooriya, a cashier, who said he lived a few blocks away and would ride out the storm at home.
The sky over Port Arthur was a gray blanket, with ominous dark clouds approaching out in the Gulf. Wind and rain came in cycles as the hurricane's outer bands arrived. Eric Daw, a 58-year-old Port Arthur resident, filled up his car at the Fuel Depot. He said he wanted to evacuate earlier but lacked money for gas as he was waiting on a disability payment. He was headed to a shelter in San Antonio, a 4 1/2-hour drive, where instead of worrying about the storm he has to contend with COVID-19, echoing concerns of many others.
"They say we are all supposed to socially distance now," he said. "But how am I supposed to socially distance in a shelter?"
Some 620,000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders in Louisiana and Texas. The catastrophic storm surge could penetrate up to 40 miles (64 km) inland from the coastline between Freeport, Texas, and the mouth of the Mississippi River and could raise water levels as high as 20 feet (6 m) in parts of Cameron Parish, Louisiana, the NHC said.
"To think that there would be a wall of water over two stories high coming on shore is very difficult for most to conceive, but that is what is going to happen," said National Weather Service meteorologist Benjamin Schott at a news conference. Most of Louisiana's Cameron Parish would be underwater at some point, Schott added.
"The word 'unsurvivable' is not one that we like to use, and it's one that I've never used before," Schott said of the storm surge.
Temporary housing was being hastily organized outside the storm surge zone for evacuated residents, and emergency teams were being strategically positioned, state and federal emergency management agencies said.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Pete Gaynor posted pictures of portable shelters at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, about 115 miles (185 km) north of the Gulf Coast. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said his state's National Guard was in place with high-water vehicles and rescue helicopters.
While Houston had earlier in the week feared Laura would deliver a direct hit to the fourth-largest U.S. city, the storm has shifted east and Houston, which was devastated by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, looked likely to escape the worst of it.
