Laura made landfall overnight in Louisiana as a Category 4. It’s now weakened to a Category 1 as it moves toward Arkansas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said major evacuations along coastal Texas ahead of Hurricane Laura “no doubt saved lives.”
“The early reports are that there were no deaths,” Abbot said while speaking to CNN’s Alisyn Camerota. “One reason for that is because people did heed the warnings to evacuate.”
But Abbott warned the storm isn’t over yet.
“If you go further up in Texas, in North East Texas, the hurricane is still going through,” Abbott said. “So there’s powerful winds knocking down very tall trees, in east Texas as well as potential tornado activity. So people in northeast Texas, still need to remain very vigilant right now.”
He continued:
“Right now we have search and rescue teams that are already going throughout the entire area to see if there is anybody who does need some type of assistance with the level of water that you’re talking about, especially in the Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange areas that were the closest to the Louisiana border that could have faced the hardest brunt of the storm.”
Emergency crews are on the ground right now, “making assessment about what the flooding damage is.”
WATCH:
