Hurricane Laura strengthened to a category 3 storm with winds of 125 mph on Wednesday morning. It was expected to intensify further to an "extremely dangerous" category 4 hurricane before making landfall along the Texas and Louisiana border overnight.
The rapidly intensifying storm is expected to inflict damage before and long after it makes landfall — and not just along the Gulf Coast.
The National Weather Service said devastation could spread far inland in eastern Texas and western Louisiana.
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Photos: Louisiana residents prepare to evacuate
Hospitals prep for 'crazy' dual threat: A hurricane during a pandemic
Emergency officials along Texas' storm-battered coast have gotten plenty of practice responding to disasters in recent years, but they've never seen a scenario like this: A destructive hurricane slamming ashore in the midst of a pandemic.
"It's crazy," said Darrell Pile, CEO of the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council, which coordinates emergency medical response in a 25-county region along the state's coast. "You do get to a point where you're like, what else do you want to put on us? You just have to do your best."
Fortunately, Pile said, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in southeastern Texas has dropped significantly since early July, when a surge of new cases strained hospital systems across the greater Houston region.
As Laura approaches, Pile said hospitals have capacity to care for a rush of patients injured in the storm. But he and other emergency officials are concerned about how to do it safely in the midst of a pandemic.
Experts worry that emergency shelters or crowded hospitals could become incubators for new COVID-19 outbreaks across the region, and are taking steps to mitigate the risk.
"Social distancing will be much more difficult for people who are evacuating," Pile said. "However, they can wear a mask. And they can do their best to minimize being too close to other people. My point is, everyone who is being impacted by this storm still needs to remember what they've been taught to minimize the spread of COVID."
6 million people under flash flood watches
More than 6 million people were under flash flood watches from Louisiana to Arkansas on Wednesday.
Parts of the northwestern Gulf Coast, from western Louisiana to far-eastern Texas, could see 15 inches of rain — on top of a 10 to 15 foot storm surge that could reach 30 miles inland.
"The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline," the National Weather Service said. "The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the right of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves."
A buoy located near Laura clocked a wave height of 37 feet Wednesday morning, alarming forecasters.
Laura expected to make landfall as Category 4 hurricane
Hurricane Laura is expected to make landfall as an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane, the National Weather Service warned at 11 a.m. ET.
As of Wednesday morning, Laura was about 230 miles from the coast of Texas and Louisiana, and moving at 16 mph.
The storm was expected to make landfall late Wednesday night. But with Laura's hurricane-force winds extending outward up to 70 miles, and its tropical-storm-force winds up to 175 miles, harsh conditions are expected between 8 p.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Thursday.
Fear of coronavirus could give people under evacuation orders pause
A fear of getting sick with the coronavirus may make some people hesitant to go to shelters despite widespread evacuation orders.
“Hopefully it’s not that threatening to people, to lives, because people are hesitant to go anywhere due to COVID,” resident Robert Duffy said as he placed sandbags around his home in Morgan City, Louisiana. “Nobody wants to sleep on a gym floor with 200 other people. It’s kind of hard to do social distancing.”
Officials urged people to stay with relatives or in hotel rooms to avoid spreading the virus. Buses were stocked with protective equipment and disinfectant, and they would carry fewer passengers to keep people apart, Texas officials said.
Shelters opened with cots set farther apart to curb coronavirus infections. People planning to enter shelters were told to bring just one bag of personal belongings each, and a mask to reduce the spread of coronavirus.
Fearing that some residents might not want to evacuate, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said those in southwest Louisiana need to reach wherever they intend to ride out the storm by noon Wednesday.
NOAA aircraft captures aerials of Hurricane Laura from the Gulf of Mexico
More than 500,000 residents ordered to evacuate
In what is now the largest evacuation in the U.S. since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, more than half a million people have been ordered to flee.
More than 385,000 residents were told to evacuate from the Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur. Ten more Texas cities and counties were under voluntary evacuation orders, including parts of Houston. About 60 counties in the state were under a disaster declaration Wednesday.
Another 200,000 people were ordered to leave low-lying Calcasieu Parish and parts of Cameron Parish in southwestern Louisiana.
“Cameron Parish is going to be part of the Gulf of Mexico for a couple of days based on this forecast track,” said Donald Jones, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Lake Charles, Louisiana.