Locally, we haven’t begun to feel the impact of Hurricane Laura yet. The Gulf Coast at the Louisiana/Texas border, and moving further inland toward Arkansas however is a different story.

Reports from various news agencies have Hurricane Laura coming in with 150 mph winds, heavy storm surge and rain (that’s a Category 4, near a 5) and remained a hurricane as it has moved more than 100 miles inland since the overnight hours when the eye past by Lake Charles, Louisiana. (Currently a Category 1, per CNN’s recent reporting.) Power is knocked out for hundreds of thousands of customers in Louisiana. Expect it to be out for a while…

Here’s some video footage I’ve been looking at online this morning:

Ways you can help

Though likely there will be upcoming drives to send supplies to impacted regions in the coming days, prepare for that now by going to purchase some of the following items:

paper towels, toilet paper, non-perishable food items, bottled water, toiletries, cleaning supplies (what you can find right now…) and some things you wouldn’t think of, like clothing items of all kinds, backup battery sources for phones, and much more.

I’d suggest making donations to an organizations that are local and targeted toward helping people rebuild after disaster. Something like Samaritan’s Purse is also usually good to send money to.

Have resources to share? Comment below or e-mail kevin@polk.today.

Where is the Hurricane tracking toward next?

It is tracking north at around 14 mph and is expected to turn toward the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys (toward us, kind of) in the coming days, weakening significantly to a tropical depression, then a low pressure system as it continues to move inland. It could reform into a storm once it reaches the Atlantic Ocean again after moving off the east coast and threaten Northern Atlantic waters in the process.

Expect to feel the outer bands to impact us some as it moves back outward from Arkansas tonight through the end of the week and weekend toward Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.

Strong wind gusts are still expected for areas that are going to see the storm track over it despite it weakening and leave behind lots of rainfall that will have the potential to cause flash flooding if it tracks more southward and over our area this weekend. Call that “potentially” at the moment.

Of note, the National Hurricane Center is already watching a new disturbance forming off the coast of Africa.