Hurricane Laura seems to have her sights set on southwest Louisiana, which is not good news for residents in the Lake Charles area.
“We woke up this morning and certainly the forecast is not favorable for the city of Lake Charles,” Lake Charles mayor Nic Hunter told WWL First News. “We were at an intense level and it has only intensified this morning.”
Mayor Hunter says he is confident in the levee protection and drainage improvements but there is still uncertainty he says with any powerful hurricane.
“We have made a lot of improvements to our drainage system over that 15 years, but Mother Nature is quite a foe,” said Hunter “When you are talking about a category 3, and you have to prepare for a category 4, there is really no municipal drainage system that could 100 percent combat that type of power.”
Related: Hurricane Laura forecast to make landfall near Texas-Louisiana line as Category 3
Hunter says he and city emergency managers have been in contact with federal emergency management agencies regarding assistance for residents in Laura’s aftermath.
“So while I have not spoken directly with FEMA, I have spoken to our state counterparts and we know those conversations are still on-going,” said Hunter.
Buses will be available to help evacuate residents out of Lake Charles if needed.
“At every bus stop, today… if someone shows up in the city of Lake Charles… a bus would take them to another location within the city and then they would board a bus administered by the state of Louisiana,” said Hunter. “They would then be taken to a state spot, possibly a shelter in Alexandria, possibly another location administered by the state. We want to keep people safe and setting up a shelter in a location that is predicted to be hit by a category 3 storm is not really not the optimal otion right now. So if people are really concerned we are trying to get them out of Lake Charles at the moment.”
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