Hurricane Delta Makes Landfall in Louisiana, Leaving More Than 700,000 Without Power
DAN ANDERSON/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Hurricane Delta made landfall in southwest Louisiana as a category 2 storm on Friday evening, before weakening to a tropical depression as it moved through the Gulf area on Saturday.
As of Saturday morning, more than 700,000 customers were without power in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, according to poweroutage.us, with the bulk of the outages coming from Louisiana.
In addition to the outages, storm surges and floods continue to pose a threat to parts of Louisiana, though the National Hurricane Center reported that “water levels will continue to subside” along the coast throughout Saturday.
Tropical-storm force winds will also persist in northern Mississippi and southeastern Arkansas and heavy rains will hit parts of Mississippi, Tennessee and the Southern Appalachian area through Sunday, the NHC said.
Here are the 10 AM CDT Key Messages for Tropical Depression #Delta. Heavy rainfall will lead to flash flooding across portions of the Lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys today and into the Southern Appalachians through Sunday. See https://t.co/SiZo8ohZMN for local hazards. pic.twitter.com/so8o0KNiUT
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) October 10, 2020
DAN ANDERSON/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Hurricane Delta approaching Louisiana Friday
RELATED: Category 3 Hurricane Delta Heading for Gulf Communities Still Recovering from Laura Aftermath
Delta first made landfall near the town of Creole, which is about 15 miles from where Hurricane Laura hit in August. The area is still recovering from Laura, which killed at least 26 people and led to extensive damage along Louisiana’s coast, particularly in Lake Charles and Sulphur.
Photos of the damage from Delta show heavily flooded roads, downed trees and power lines, and windows blown out from the high winds. Louisiana State Sen. Ronnie Johns said on Saturday that Delta is “worse than we even thought (in Lake Charles and Sulphur) again,” according to USA Today.
“We're getting tore up again,” he said. “It's disheartening, but we'll be OK.”
At least two buildings in downtown Abbeville lost windows in #HurricaneDelta2020, both on N State Street
The first is a dry cleaners, the second looks to be a studio. Glass all over the sidewalk but inside don't look heavily damaged pic.twitter.com/ddxnZcnJA7— Andrew Capps (@JAndrewCapps) October 10, 2020
#HurricaneDelta2020 toppled a huge tree and left it lying across two power lines and blocking all of E St. Victor Street in front of the Vermilion Parish Library in downtown Abbeville pic.twitter.com/usYmqcA3xK
— Andrew Capps (@JAndrewCapps) October 10, 2020
RELATED: Photos of the Devastation Caused By Hurricane Laura & How You Can Help in the Aftermath
“Delta has left hazards like flooded roads, downed power lines and displaced wildlife in our communities that no one should take lightly,” Gov. John Bel Edwards added in a Saturday tweet. “Everyone needs to remain vigilant, continue to listen to local officials and be safe.”
Prior to the hurricane making landfall, Edwards noted that the state was “still trying to recover” from Laura.
“It is very clear that Southwest Louisiana is going to get more of a punch from this than we would like to see, for sure, because we're still trying to recover from Hurricane Laura,” he said in a Thursday briefing, according to CBS News.
