Hurricane Laura and Its Effects

Hurricane Laura was a devastation to the south. This Hurricane made landfall as a category four on Thursday August 27 of 2020.  This hurricane ripped through the states of  Texas and Louisiana. Later, the storm declined to a tropical depression that went through the states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia.  According to Yale Climate connections-

“Laura is tied as the fifth- strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in the continental US”

Also according to an eyewitness account from NPR news, Scooter Lewis, the chief of the volunteer fire department who was interviewed with NPR’s Wade Goldwyn states,“It tore the brick off, it tore the roof off, it lifted the truck by its roof. I mean, it tore everything. I have a skylight in my truck right now.”

According to KTBS news, “The weather service says Laura was the strongest land falling hurricane in Louisiana on record, tied with an 1856 storm that hit the community of “Last Island.”

This hurricane was one of the most powerful storms that the gulf of Mexico had in a very long time especially for this year’s hurricane season. Even though Louisiana and Texas were mostly affected by this hurricane, there were also other states that dealt with the residuals of Hurricane Laura. According to Pennie Rorex, a Thompson Station resident from Tennessee states what her experience was like.

“According to The Tennessean, our local newspaper, “Storms blew through Middle Tennessee Thursday night, downing power lines, causing flooding and knocking down trees. Thousands reported power outages.” Fortunately, [My Husband] Allen and I just experienced intermittent bursts of very heavy rain and gusty winds, but we stayed warm, dry, and with power while we worked at our desks like a normal workday. Also, for about an hour, our part of the county was on “tornado watch,” which means the weather may develop further. If the “watch” was to develop further, we would receive a tornado “warning”. Our town was never elevated to a tornado warning.”

Pennie Rorex also states, “I don’t know of anyone in our community that was impacted by the residuals of Hurricane Laura when it passed through Middle Tennessee. In addition, I have not witnessed any effects of the residuals of Hurricane Laura in our community.”. 

Scott King, a resident of Franklin, Tennessee explains his experience with the residuals of Laura, 

“Hurricane Laura brought us approximately 2” of rain and moderate winds. It had been downgraded to a tropical storm when it arrived in the Nashville area on Friday afternoon. We were also under a tornado watch for about an hour but no tornadoes were spotted”. King also states,  “ our area receives about 40” A precipitation per year, so the rain that fell didn’t affect us. Our city has several rivers and creeks that are designed to receive the runoff, so the water drains quickly.”

With that said, many people in the south including Texas and Louisiana have been extremely impacted by this storm. Even though some states that were in the path of Laura like Tennessee didn’t get as much damage, they still got some repercussions from it. Let’s ALL hope that we don’t get another deadly storm like Laura anytime soon.