Storm Laura set to slam US energy coast as hurricane

Bloomberg

Hurricane Laura is poised to strengthen rapidly and come ashore along the Texas-Louisiana coast as a tree-snapping Category 3 storm, forcing residents to flee their homes despite the threat of Covid-19.
Laura’s winds will likely peak at 115 miles (185 kilometres) per hour as it comes ashore early on Thursday,
the National Hurricane Center said. Laura has disrupted offshore oil and natural gas
production, shuttered refineries and export terminals and prompted mandatory evacuations. The storm would be
the first major system to hit the Gulf Coast since Michael in 2018.
“Laura will continue to rapidly intensify over the next 24 hours before making landfall,” said Elizabeth Palumbi, a meteorologist with commercial forecaster Maxar. “Models have been inching westward on where exactly Laura will approach, so any location from Corpus Christi to west-central Louisiana is currently at risk.”
Workers board up windows in the French Quarter in anticipation of Hurricane Marco and Tropical storm Laura on August 23, 2020 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The tropical threat has prompted 82% of oil output and 57% of natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico to
be shut, according to the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
Gulf Coast refineries and petrochemical plants are often located in low-lying areas vulnerable to flooding. In 2017, an Arkema SA chemical plant about 25 miles east of Houston had a fire and explosion after it was flooded by Hurricane Harvey. In September, Exxon shut its Beaumont refinery in Texas because of flooding from Tropical Storm Imelda.
There is a chance wind shear could cut into Laura’s top winds just before landfall, but that probably won’t change
the devastating impacts the storm will bring, said Rob Miller, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. Laura could push sea levels 6 to 10 feet (2 to 3 metres) higher where it comes ashore, and if conditions are right, storm surge could be as high as 15 feet, Miller said.
Laura almost certainly won’t be as damaging as Harvey, the last major hurricane to hit Texas. Harvey came ashore as a Category 4 storm and then got pinned in place by larger weather patterns, causing it to send record rains across the eastern half of the state for days.
Laura may pack a severe punch at landfall, but it will quickly exit the area, reducing the potential for lingering effects. The last hurricane to hit Texas was Hanna in July.