Laura Inland Over Louisiana

Hurricane Laura made landfall around 12:20 AM at Cameron, Louisiana with sustained winds of 150 mph. Laura was a Cat 4 Major hurricane when she came ashore and has been able to maintain a significant amount of her strength. As of 8 AM, she was still a Cat 2 Hurricane with sustained winds of 100 mph.

At 8 AM, the center of the storm was between Natchitoches, LA, and Ft. Polk, traveling north at around 15 mph. She is still on track to be up by I-20 around noon today.

Flash Flooding is a significant problem with Laura. You can see on our radar image above (taken at 8 AM) there are numerous green boxes covering all of western Louisiana and parts of East Texas. Winds are also very strong with Tropical Storm force winds as far north as Shreveport and Ruston.

Laura will travel over Natchitoches, and then head up between Shreveport and Monroe by around noon. This afternoon she’ll move into Arkansas and should steadily weaken along the way.

The real question now is how long will she be able to maintain her strength? She will likely still be a Cat 1 Hurricane over Natchitoches and may be able to maintain those hurricane force winds even further north. There have only been two tropical systems since 1900 that have been able to still be a hurricane as far north as I-20. Those are Frederick in 1972 and Camille in 1969. Right now, it looks like Laura is trying to be the third.