Laura Threatens U.S. Gulf Coast With ‘Unsurvivable’ Storm Surge
- Damage could leave areas uninhabitable for weeks or months
- Laura may cause $25 billion of damage, Enki Research says
Hurricane Laura in the Gulf of Mexico on Aug. 26.
Source: NOAA
Hurricane Laura is set to slam into the U.S. Gulf Coast early Thursday as an extremely powerful Category 4 storm, unleashing deadly storm surges, flash floods and destructive winds that could inflict as much as $25 billion in damage.
Laura is already a Category 3 major hurricane with maximum winds of 125 miles (201 kilometers) per hour, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 11 a.m. in New York. It’s forecast to peak at 145 miles per hour over the Gulf of Mexico, the NHC said. That would make it just shy of Category 5 strength, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with stronger winds than Hurricane Harvey had at landfall in 2017. The storm could cause $20 billion to $25 billion in damage and economic losses, Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler with Enki Research, said on his blog.