Hurricane Laura kills at least four, leaves substantial wind damage

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) said Thursday that four people have died so far in the state after Hurricane Laura made landfall.

The four deaths occurred in Acadia, Jackson and Vernon parishes, according to Edwards.

“I’m asking that we all lift up these families in prayer, and certainly I’m concerned that as we go out and do primary and secondary search and rescue, we’re going to find more fatalities. I hope not, I pray not, but that is why we go out and do those search and rescues,” he said.

Laura made landfall Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane near the Texas border, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power and causing massive havoc before it was later downgraded to a tropical storm. 

As of 4 p.m. local time, the storm was packing winds of 50 mph, according to the National Weather Service, a drop from the 150 mph it first brought early Thursday morning.

Edwards said the storm surge could have risen as high as 15 feet, short of the 20 feet he had anticipated, and that the majority of the damage was caused by wind. 

Despite the deaths, the governor said that Laura did not lead to the amount of damage that had been forecasted.

“It is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute catastrophic damage that we thought was likely based on the forecast we had last night,” he said, adding there are still “lots of challenges around the state.”

More than 852,000 customers in Texas and Louisiana combined did not have power as of Thursday evening, according to PowerOutages.us.