Hurricane Laura struck the US state of Louisiana in the early hours of Thursday, slamming the Gulf of Mexico coast with winds of up to 150mph and bringing warnings of an “unsurvivable” storm surge.
The powerful category-four storm, which gained strength this week as it moved over the Gulf of Mexico, is potentially the most dangerous of its kind to hit Louisiana since the devastating Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
It was expected to cause widespread damage across Louisiana and neighbouring Texas, and bring disruption to the US oil refining industry. US government officials said they were assessing damage on Thursday morning, sending staff to the hardest-hit areas shortly after sunrise.
Local media reported extensive damage in southern Louisiana, with one of the tallest buildings in the city of Lake Charles, the Capital One Tower, showing most of its windows shattered.
The affected area is the heart of the US energy industry, with the hurricane cutting between Port Arthur, Texas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana, two of the most important oil refinery hubs in the country.
The White House warned about the extensive damage likely as the hurricane continued to move north and affected the states of Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas. President Trump was due to visit the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters later in the day.
Refineries with a total capacity of 2.2m barrels per day of oil were closing plants or reducing volumes in advance of the storm, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics. This is about a quarter of the refining capacity on the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
With the US exporting about 3m b/d of crude oil and 5m b/d of refined petroleum products this year, disruptions to Gulf infrastructure could affect global energy markets as well as US consumers.
Even as Laura moved inland, it remained a dangerous category 2 storm, and the National Hurricane Center continued to warn of sustained winds of 130mph, bringing “flash floods” and a “catastrophic” storm surge it has said could be as high as 20ft.
US petrol prices rallied this week in anticipation of the shutdowns but have since stabilised. On Thursday morning, the benchmark wholesale RBOB gasoline contract was down 0.4 per cent at $1.356 a gallon.
“The waiting game now begins to discover the full extent of the damage,” said Stephen Brennock at oil brokerage PVM.
The NHC warned people in Hurricane Laura’s path of “life threatening conditions”. “The safest place to be during a major landfalling hurricane is in a reinforced interior room away from windows,” the NHC advised.
Mike Pence, the US vice-president, said on Wednesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had “mobilised resources and supplies for those in harm’s way”.
Additional reporting by Gregory Meyer in New York
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50L2NkYWZkOTViLWRiNDQtNDRlZi1iOTllLTk4N2M0YmU2OGZiNNIBP2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50L2NkYWZkOTViLWRiNDQtNDRlZi1iOTllLTk4N2M0YmU2OGZiNA?oc=5
2020-08-27 14:53:00Z
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