Hurricane Laura Updates: Six Dead at the Louisiana Border

NBC News reports that a massive recovery effort has begun for the areas affected by Hurricane Laura. The tropical storm was deemed a Category 4 by weather experts before it made landfall 2 days ago. The Texas-Louisiana border was expecting winds up to 140 mph and devestating storm damage. Reports of massive power outages, property damage, and personal damage have started to surface as the area is in recovery.

The eye of the storm hit Cameron Louisiana and traveled through Lake Charles; after that the storm continued to cause devestating damage for miles. The Category 4 hurricane maintained winds of 150 mph and is now the most powerful storm to ever hit Lousiana, according to NBC News.

Homes and businesses were severely damaged and power lines were snapped, causing power outages for an unknown amount of time. Trees were ripped from the ground by the powerful winds and caused further property damage. The area is still without any power and is expected to be so for some time.

Louisiana's governor says that "we have thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens whose lives are upside down." It is the most intense hurricane to impact Louisiana in "more than a century [and] has left at least six people dead, hundreds of thousands of people without power, and an untold number of homes and buildings in ruins."

NBC News reports that a "24 year old man also died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator. Another person who was in a boat during the storm drowned." The following families are maintaining privacy as other death and injury tolls are still being confirmed.

The highway connecting Houston and New Orleans, Interstate 10, was damaged by a loose mooring from the Lake Charles Isle of Capri Casino Barge when the winds of the storm damaged it. Fires at a chemical manufacturing plant in Westlake only a few miles away required a shelter-in-place advisory because of the large amount of smoke in the sky.

As of 7 p.m., according to NBC News, almost 540,000 customers in Louisiana have no electricity, and the Louisiana Department of Health estimates some 220,000 people have no drinking water. In Texas, Gov. Abbott confirms that 300,000 customers have no power.

SOURCE: NBC NEWS