Energy Prospectus

Hurricane Laura made landfall as a powerful Category 4 hurricane early Thursday morning in Louisiana with 150 mph winds and more than 9 feet of storm surge that ripped buildings to pieces, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands and inundated the coastline.

The first death caused by Laura was reported about 8 a.m. CDT. A 14-year-old girl was killed when a tree fell on her home in Leesville, Louisiana, according to the governor's office. Leesville, in Vernon Parish, is about 95 miles inland.

The storm made landfall at 1 a.m. CDT Thursday near Cameron, Louisiana, where an estimated 150 people in the surrounding parish had refused to evacuate, according to the Associated Press. Some planned to ride out the storm in elevated homes, while others were reportedly in recreational vehicles.

“This has turned out for the city of Lake Charles to be a catastrophic wind event,” Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter told The Weather Channel. “I’m looking out my window and I see buildings in downtown Lake Charles that look like Swiss cheese. I see a TV tower that’s collapsed. I see literal entire facades of buildings that are blown off, not just windows. First floor of city hall, the entire first floor walls are basically just blown apart. This is a major event.”

Hunter said the wind damage from Hurricane Laura was worse than that of Hurricane Rita in 2005.

In Calcasieu Parish, the parish surrounding Lake Charles, Dick Gremillion, director of emergency management, told The Weather Channel there was "a lot of tree damage, a lot of utility damage."

Watch video here: https://weather.com/news/news/2020-08-2 ... =hp-slot-1

Here is what 140 mph winds do: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projec ... 12eaeab359

When we lived in Tulsa a tornado went directly over our home. It touch down about five miles from our home and I have never seen anything like it. With winds over 250 mph it took brink homes to the ground with nothing left. It blew dozens of 18-wheelers off the highway piled them up like toys. We saw dozens of horses and cattle dead in trees. The path of destruction it left through the forest was like dozens of Cat 5 bulldozers side by side destroying everything in their path.

Pray that nothing like this happens to you and say a few prays for the people whose lives have been turned upside down by Laura.

Lake Charles, Louisiana (which we visit several times each year) was hit very hard.