Tag Archives: Clear Lake

Hurricane Laura slams Louisiana, kills six, but less damage than forecast

By Elijah Nouvelage and Ernest Scheyder

LAKE CHARLES, La. (Reuters) – Hurricane Laura tore through Louisiana on Thursday, killing six people and flattening buildings across a wide swatch of the state before moving into Arkansas with heavy rains.

Laura’s powerful gusts uprooted trees – and four people were crushed to death in separate incidents of trees falling on homes. The state’s department of health said late Thursday that there were two more fatalities attributed to the hurricane – a man who drowned while aboard a sinking boat and a man who had carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a generator in his home.

In Westlake, a chemical plant caught fire when hit by Laura, and the flames continued to send a chlorine-infused plume of smoke skyward nearly 24 hours after landfall.

Laura caused less mayhem than forecasts predicted – but officials said it remained a dangerous storm and that it would take days to assess the damage. At least 867,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas remained without power on Thursday afternoon.

“This was the most powerful storm to ever make landfall in Louisiana,” Governor John Bel Edwards told a news conference. “It’s continuing to cause damage and life-threatening conditions.”

Laura’s maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour (241 kph) upon landfall easily bested Hurricane Katrina, which sparked deadly levee breaches in New Orleans in 2005, and arrived with wind speeds of 125 mph.

The NHC said Laura’s eye had crossed into southern Arkansas late Thursday afternoon and was heading to the northeast at 15 mph (24 kph). The storm could dump 7 inches (178 mm) of rain on portions of Arkansas, likely causing flash floods.

Laura was downgraded to a tropical depression by the NHC at 10 p.m., and the forecaster said it will move to the mid-Mississippi Valley later on Friday and then to the mid-Atlantic states on Saturday.

CHEMICAL PLUME

Laura’s howling winds leveled buildings across a wide swath of the state and a wall of water that was 15 feet (4.6 m) high crashed into tiny Cameron, Louisiana, where the hurricane made landfall around 1 a.m.

A calamitous 20-foot storm surge that had been forecast to move 40 miles (64 km) inland was avoided when Laura tacked east just before landfall, Edwards said. That meant a mighty gush of water was not fully pushed up the Calcasieu Ship Channel, which would have given the storm surge an easy path far inland.

Tropical-force winds were felt in nearly every parish across Louisiana – and Edwards warned that the death toll could climb as search and rescue missions increase.

CLEANUP BEGINS

Residents of Lake Charles heard Laura’s winds and the sound of breaking glass as the storm passed through the city of 78,000 with winds of 85 mph and gusts up to 128 mph in the hour after landfall.

National Guard troops cleared debris from roads in Lake Charles on Thursday afternoon. There were downed power lines in streets around the city, and the winds tipped a few semi-trucks onto their sides.

The windows of the city’s 22-story Capital One Tower were blown out, street signs were toppled and pieces of wooden fence and debris from collapsed buildings lay scattered in the flooded streets, video footage on Twitter and Snapchat showed.

Lake Charles resident Borden Wilson, a 33-year-old pediatrician, was anxious about his return home after evacuating to Minden, Louisiana.

“I never even boarded up my windows. I didn’t think to do that. This is the first hurricane I’ve experienced. I just hope my house is fine,” he said in a telephone interview.

(Reporting by Elijah Nouvelage in Lake Charles, La., Ernest Scheyder in Starks, La., Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas, Jennifer Hiller and Gary McWilliams in Houston, Liz Hampton in Denver, Timothy Ahmann, Susan Heavey and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington, Gabriella Borter and Peter Szekely in New York; Writing by Gabriella Borter and Brad Brooks; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Stephen Coates)

Wildfire rages into California town, burning homes, businesses

A burning house damaged by the Clayton Fire is seen near Lower Lake in California,

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A rampaging wildfire that descended on a small Northern California town over the weekend destroyed more than 100 homes and businesses, authorities said on Monday, as crews fought to save more dwellings from the flames.

The so-called Clayton fire, which broke out on Saturday evening, was driven by fierce winds into the foothill community of Lower Lake, some 80 miles (129 km) north of San Francisco, burning everything in its path and forcing hundreds of residents to flee.

A damage assessment team was working to determine how many structures were lost, said Daniel Berlant of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. But he added, “we know it’s well over 100,” mostly homes.

There were no reports of casualties, Berlant said, but Lake County sheriffs deputies were investigating burned-out structures. The nearby community of Clear Lake was also evacuated.

As winds died down on Sunday evening crews began to make progress cutting containment lines around the flames and putting out hot spots, Berlant said, but “we know that as temperatures heat back up again today it’s likely fire conditions will increase.”

“We’ve got over 1,600 firefighters ready to go to battle again when that happens.”

The cause of the blaze, which has so far blackened more than 3,000 acres, was under investigation. Fire managers said it was about 5 percent contained as of Monday morning.

The conflagration is one of 24 major wildfires burning across the drought-parched U.S. West which all together have charred nearly 300,000 acres.

The so-called Chimney fire, which erupted on Saturday afternoon in San Luis Obispo County, had scorched more than 4,300 acres in less than 48 hours, destroying 20 structures and threatening some 150 others as hundreds of residents were told to evacuate.

That blaze was only 10 percent contained as of Monday morning.

The Soberanes fire, one of the largest so far this season, has burned through more than 72,000 acres near scenic Big Sur, destroying 57 homes and 11 outbuildings since it broke out on July 22. It was 60 percent contained as of Monday.

A bulldozer operator died on July 26 when his tractor rolled over as he helped property owners battle the flames, the sixth wildfire fatality in California this year.

Authorities have traced origins of the Soberanes fire to an illegal campfire left unattended in a state park about a mile from Highway 1. No arrests have been made so far.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)