Hurricane Laura's maximum winds are up to 85 miles per hour in the latest update from the National Hurricane Center. At 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, the Category 1 storm is still forecast to make landfall somewhere on the southwestern end of Louisiana or southeastern Texas.
"On the forecast track, the center of Laura will move across the central Gulf of Mexico tonight and the northwestern Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday," said National Hurricane Center Senior Hurricane Specialist Jack Beven. "The hurricane should approach the Upper Texas and Southwest Louisiana coasts on Wednesday night and move inland near those areas late Wednesday night or Thursday morning."
Hurricane Laura is expected to generate a storm surge of 9-13 feet where it makes landfall. As of now, the hurricane center expects that's around Cameron Parish south of Lake Charles, as a Category 3 hurricane with top winds of 115 miles per hour. Surge heights as great as eleven feet could occur as far away as Vermilion Bay.
Closer to New Orleans, the National Hurricane Center is predicting storm surge of four to six feet in the Barataria and Terrebonne bay areas. Breton Sound, Lake Borgne, Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas could experience a surge from two to four feet.
Laura may dump up to 15 inches of rain where it makes landfall. Rain totals for much of the south shore of New Orleans could be up to two inches, with two to four inches of rain on the Northshore.
