At least 15 people in the US have died after Hurricane Laura swept through the country's southern states. Over half of the victims died of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by power generators.
Image: Reuters/E. Nouvelage
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The US death toll from Hurricane Laura climbed to at least 15 on Friday, after the stage 4 hurricane swept through the south of the country.
At least 10 people in the state of Louisiana died, Governor John Bel Edwards announced Friday.
Five of the deaths were due to carbon monoxide poisoning caused by using portable generators indoors. Four people were killed by falling trees. One man drowned after his boat sank in the storm.
Authorities in Texas reported four deaths. Three of the four fatalities were also due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Those killed were reportedly homeless individuals who had sought shelter in a pool hall, where they turned their generator on, the pool hall operator announced.
The fourth death was a man in East Texas who reportedly died when a tree fell on his mobile home.
President Trump said there had been "not one complaint" about handling of the crisisImage: picture-alliance/AP Photo/A. Brandon
US President Donald Trump visited Louisiana Saturday to survey the damage.
"One thing I know about this state, it rebuilds fast," he told a gathering that included state Governor John Bel Edwards. "I haven't had one complaint," he said, referring to the federal response to the emergency.
A historic storm
Hurricane Laura hit the US coast in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday evening. With winds blowing up to 240 kilometers (150 miles) per hour, the storm made landfall as a high-end Category 4 storm, just 11 kilometers (7 miles) per hour below the threshold for Category 5, the highest classification a hurricane can have.
Laura was the strongest hurricane to hit Louisiana in more than 150 years.
It has since been downgraded to a tropical storm.
The storm had moved up through the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean. Fatalities in Haiti have since risen to 31, the country's civil defense authority said.
In Louisiana, the Department of Health estimated that over 220,000 people there are without water and that victims may go weeks or months before services are restored.
Forty nursing homes were reportedly relying on generators, and authorities were determining whether it was safe for over 860 residents in 11 facilities that had been evacuated to return.
Hurricane Laura batters US Gulf Coast
A Category 4 hurricane at landfall, Laura ripped through the US states of Texas and Louisiana, destroying buildings and killing more than a dozen people. Authorities say it was one of the strongest on record.
Image: Reuters/E. Nouvelage
Arrival
Laura made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in the early hours of Thursday morning in the small town of Cameron, Louisiana. It was packing winds of up to 241 kph (150 mph), making it one of the most powerful storms on record in the US. Hours later it was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane, but continued to lash the coast with heavy rain and winds.
Image: Imago Images/NASA
Lost life
The storm's first fatality was a 14-year-old girl who died when a tree fell on her house in the Louisiana city of Leesville. The state's governor, John Bel Edwards, appealed to residents to stay home, and warned the death toll could rise.
Image: Getty Images/J. Raedle
Widespread damage
The hurricane ripped right through Lake Charles, a Louisiana city of around 80,000 people. It gutted buildings, toppled street signs and flooded roads.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Herbert
Shattered glass
The wind also blew out the windows of the city's 22-floor Capital One Tower, and brought down a controversial statue of a Confederate general that had stood outside the Lake Charles court house since 1915.
Image: Getty Images/J. Raedle
Roar of a jet engine
Lake Charles resident Chris Johnson surveys the damage at his home. He decided to stay put as the hurricane passed through. Brett Geymann, who lives just north of the city, said the hurricane sounded like the roar of a jet engine. "It looks like 1,000 tornadoes went through here. It's just destruction everywhere," he told The Associated Press. "There are houses that are totally gone."
Image: picture-alliance/AP/G. Herbert
Power outages
More than 700,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana and Texas were without power early Thursday, and local utilities in the storm's path warned those numbers would rise as Laura advanced inland. The hurricane's arrival also led to the closure of ports and forced oil rigs and refineries in the US Gulf to shut down production.
Image: Reuters/E. Nouvelage
Wall of water
The National Hurricane Center had predicted that Laura would bring an "unsurvivable storm surge and destructive waves," that could penetrate more than 60km inland. While the worst projections didn't appear to materialize, the NHC warned high water levels would continue to surge along the Gulf Coast for several hours as Laura moved north.
Hundreds of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate from parts of Texas and Louisiana. Many booked into hotels inland, or slept in their cars, with officials reluctant to open large shelters that could lead to the coronavirus spreading. Texas Governor Greg Abbott had warned that Laura's power was "unprecedented" and told citizens to "get out of harm's way."
Image: picture-alliance/AP/G. Herbert
Death and destruction in the tropics
Laura reached the US after causing devastating flooding and landslides in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, killing at least 23 people. It is the 12th named storm in the Atlantic so far this year, and the National Hurricane Center has predicted there may be as many as 25 before the storm season ends in November.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/E. St-Val
Confederate monument toppled
A controversial Confederate statue in Louisiana came down after Laura swept through. The South's Defenders Memorial Monument in Lake Charles, Louisiana was toppled by the hurricane on Thursday. Just two weeks ago, local authorities had voted to keep the Confederate monument after protesters asked for it to be removed.
Image: Reuters/E. Nouvelage
Over half of victims poisoned
At least 14 people in the US have been reported dead after Laura swept through Texas and Louisiana. Over half of the deaths were due to carbon monoxide poisoning caused by the misuse of power generators indoors. At least four other people were killed by falling trees, and one individual died after his boat sank in the storm.
