Nine months after two back-to-back hurricanes hammered their towns, scores of coastal Louisiana residents are still struggling to recover.

– As southwest Louisiana recovers from the back-to-back hurricanes that hammered the region this year, signs of progress compete with lingering evidence of mass destruction. Hurricane Laura roared ashore in southwestern Louisiana on Aug. 27 as a Category 4 storm just south of Lake Charles. According to Louisiana government figures, nearly 47,000 homes were damaged by Hurricane Laura, with about 16,000 of those in need of major repairs. The bulk of those homes are in Calcasieu Parish, home to the state's fifth-largest city, Lake Charles, with 80,000 residents. A Facebook group set up after Hurricane Laura has become a lifeline for struggling residents.

Blue tarps cover houses in the aftermath of Hurricane Delta, Saturday Oct. 10, 2020, in Iowa, La. – Michele Vincent’s home was largely intact in spite of hurricanes Laura and Delta. Coastal Cameron Parish had about 9,800 residents when Hurricane Rita hit in 2005. “Leave Cameron Parish and go into Calcasieu it's bad there too. They were the only red lights we had in Cameron Parish.

A 70-year-old woman in Iberia Parish died in a fire likely caused by a natural gas leak following damage from Hurricane Delta, the Louisiana Department of Health said Sunday. Clair Hebert Marceaux lost her home in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, during Hurricane Laura and said the community was hard at work on rebuilding when Delta struck. “We can’t lose our momentum,” she said, though she added there was “utter devastation” in the area. Earnestine and Milton Wesley had decided to ride out Delta in their Lake Charles home, damaged by Laura. “And with God’s help we made it.”After blowing ashore, Delta moved over Lake Charles, a city where Laura damaged nearly every home and building.

Marcus Peterson walks past a downed tree in his yard after Hurricane Delta moved through, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020, in Jennings, La. It then moved over Lake Charles, a city where Hurricane Laura damaged nearly every home and building in late August. While Delta was a weaker storm than Category 4 Laura, it brought significantly more flooding, Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said. Forecasters warned that heavy rain, storm surges and flash floods continued to pose dangers in areas from Texas to Mississippi. They arrived back in Lake Charles last weekend, got a new roof on Monday and had to evacuate again Thursday.

This GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken Friday, Oct. 9, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, and provided by NOAA, shows Hurricane Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. – Ripping tarps from already damaged roofs and scattering debris piled by roadsides, Hurricane Delta inflicted a new round of destruction on Louisiana as it struck communities still reeling after Hurricane Laura took a similar path just six weeks earlier. Delta's reach stretched as far west as Galveston, Texas, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from where the storm struck Louisiana. Tropical Storm Marco fizzled as it hit the southeast Louisiana tip just three days before Laura struck. “The wind is much worse than what Hurricane Laura brought,” Gove said in a message on Twitter.

Louisiana residents still recovering from the devastation of a powerful hurricane less than two months ago braced for another hit as Hurricane Delta steamed north through the Gulf on Thursday after swiping Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula. The projected path included the southwest area of Louisiana where Category 4 Hurricane Laura made landfall less than two months ago. Randazzo watched pieces of one of his restaurants, Panorama Music House, fly past a meteorologist’s car on a Facebook Live video during Hurricane Laura. The most recent forecast for Hurricane Delta has the storm making landfall “almost precisely” where Hurricane Laura struck — a region where homes and electrical infrastructure are still damaged, Edwards said in a radio interview. New Orleans, well to the east of the projected landfall area, was expected to escape the worst of Hurricane Delta.

The storm being watched Wednesday was Hurricane Delta, the 25th named storm of the Atlantic's unprecedented hurricane season. Forecasts placed most of Louisiana within Delta's path, with the latest National Hurricane Center estimating landfall in the state on Friday. Along with getting hit by Hurricane Laura and escaping Hurricane Sally, Louisiana saw heavy flooding June 7 from Tropical Storm Cristobal. Tropical Storm Beta prompted tropical storm warnings in mid-September as it slowly crawled up the northeast Texas coast. “Not seeing any signs of any additional tropical weather in the extended which is OK with us because we are SO DONE with Hurricane Season 2020,” they wrote.

HOUSTON – As Tropical Storm Beta neared the Texas coast Monday, the biggest unknown was how much rainfall it could produce in areas that have already seen their share of damaging weather during a busy hurricane season. Rain from Beta was already coming down Monday in the Houston area. Earlier predictions of up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) in some areas were downgraded Monday to up to 15 inches (38 centimeters). Forecasters and officials reassured residents Beta was not expected to be another Hurricane Harvey or Tropical Storm Imelda. Harvey in 2017 dumped more than 50 inches (127 centimeters) of rain on Houston, causing $125 billion in damage in Texas.

Forecasters said Beta was not expected to bring the same amount of rainfall that Texas experienced during either Hurricane Harvey in 2017 or Tropical Storm Imelda last year. The first rain bands from Beta reached the Texas coast on Sunday, but the heaviest rain wasn't expected to arrive until Monday into Tuesday. If the system makes landfall in Texas, it would be the ninth named storm to make landfall in the continental U.S. in 2020. A tropical storm warning was in effect for Bermuda. Wilfred, which had been a tropical storm, weakened to a tropical depression earlier Sunday.

NEW ORLEANS Hurricane Laura caused significant damage at a site holding about 30% of the nations store of emergency crude oil, but three other sites still have plenty of petroleum, U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Wednesday. The damaged Strategic Petroleum Reserve site in West Hackberry, Louisiana, holds nearly 8.2 billion gallons (31 billion liters) of crude oil in 21 huge caverns deep underground. Two sites in Louisiana and two in Texas currently hold about 27.2 billion gallons (103 billion liters) of crude. The oil is held in caverns hollowed out of salt domes mountainous salt deposits that are almost entirely underground. Together, they can hold nearly 30 billion gallons (113.6 billion liters) of oil.

Some key takeaways of the immediate analysis of Laura's effects have emerged:IT WILL TAKE MONTHS TO KNOW EFFECTS:Scientists say some coastal impact from Hurricane Laura is inevitable. Bren Haase, who heads the states Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said the eastern Cameron shoreline got pounded pretty hard." SALINITY'S A PROBLEMAnother question is how long storm surge waters sit before eventually draining away. Laura took a slight jog to the East just before making landfall which probably prevented some of the worst storm surge from pushing all the way into Lake Charles. This might be in part because the storm blew through so quickly and the storm surge was so high that it simply rode over the marshes, rather than tearing them up.

Rakisha Murray cries in relief as she arrives to see her mother's home undamaged, after she returned from evacuation with her mother and other family in Lake Charles, La., in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020. Federal and state officials are on the ground to help residents with home repairs and hotel stays. Nineteen deaths in Texas and Louisiana have been attributed to the storm; half were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from the unsafe operation of generators. More than 67,000 people in Louisiana have registered for assistance from FEMA so far, according to Edwards' office. In Lake Charles, many people were staying outside town.

Bradley Beard calls Hurricane Laura his third strike. This is all I got.Across Cameron Parish, the coastal parish where Hurricane Laura crashed ashore early Thursday, residents dug through what was left of their belongings, covered now-stripped roofs with tarps, and took stock of the damage. Edwards called Laura the most powerful hurricane to strike Louisiana, a shocking assessment in a state where Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005. Out in western Louisiana it is the storm that came ashore a month after Katrina Hurricane Rita that evokes strong memories. Her daughters insist that they stay in Cameron Parish.

Hazardous emissions from a chlorine plant fire, abruptly shuttered oil and gas refineries and still-to-be assessed plant damage are seeping into the air after Hurricane Laura, regulators say, but some key state and federal monitors to alert the public of air dangers remain offline in Louisiana. But some Louisiana residents and environmental advocates say a shortage of solid government information on the state of the air is typical. No word of any major industrial threat other than the chlorine plant fire had emerged by three days after Laura. By Saturday, EPA contractors had left the area of the chlorine plant fire, said Langley, the Louisiana environmental spokesman. ___This story has been corrected to reflect that the name of the Louisiana environmental group is the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, not The Bucket Brigades.

It was really, really bad instead of apocalyptic, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said. Lauren Sylvester heeded the mandatory evacuation, leaving her townhouse in Lake Charles on Wednesday to stay with her mom in New Iberia. Between the evacuation order and the storm surge projections, she didnt want to take a risk. In the end, the city got maybe half the storm surge it could have received, he said. The worst storm surge is to the east of a hurricane's eyewall because of the combination of the storm's counterclockwise whirl and northward movement.

Damage is seen at South Cameron High School in Creole, La., Friday, Aug. 28, after the storm surge receded in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura. It also led to fires at a chlorine plant in Westlake in the hard-hit Lake Charles area. Simply driving was a feat in Lake Charles. Nineteen babies who weathered the hurricane at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital were brought to other hospitals across around the state. Hurricane Laura also killed nearly two dozen people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic en route to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The hospital has its own generator and hospital administrator Alesha Alford said it was built to withstand hurricane force winds. In a roughly two-hour operation the babies in the intensive care unit were transferred by ambulance to Lake Charles Memorial Hospital, a ten-story facility on the northern side of the city. Two of them had their newborns with them while the child of the third mom was in the intensive care unit. To protect our babies, mattresses were pushed up against the windows to prevent flying glass although none of the windows ended up breaking. After making it through the hurricane, the plan was to have the babies stay in Lake Charles.

Michigan Humane staff and volunteers helped 34 dogs that were evacuated from shelters in Louisiana Friday afternoon. These dogs come from animal shelters across Louisiana and have come to Michigan to help create space in these shelters as they work to support animals displaced by Hurricane Laura. We’ve seen people from across the country come together with the goal of helping those affected,” said Michigan Humane president and CEO Matt Pepper. Updates regarding their status will be posted on the Michigan Humane Facebook page. Footage of the flight’s arrival and the dogs disembarking -- provided by Michigan Humane -- can be seen in the video player above.

Flooding surrounds a damaged building and boat Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, in Cameron, La., after Hurricane Laura moved through the area Thursday. Simply driving in Lake Charles, a city of 80,000 residents that sustained some of the worst damage, was a feat. "If you come back to Lake Charles to stay, make sure you understand the above reality and are prepared to live in it for many days, probably weeks, Hunter wrote on Facebook. In the storm's wake, more than 600,000 homes and businesses were without power in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. Ira Lyles returned to find that his downtown Lake Charles salon called The Parlor House survived with little damage, but his home was destroyed.

WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Hurricane Laura is one of the most powerful storms ever to make landfall in the United States. It was a Category 4 storm when it hit the Gulf Coast overnight. Now, people in Metro Detroit are gearing up to help. LIVE TRACKING: Hurricane Laura blasts Gulf Coast with wind, rain, wall of waterThe group “Disaster Relief At Work” is from Waterford Township and is heading to the Gulf Coast. Watch video above for the full report

Watch live satellite tracking and forecasting of Hurricane Laura. Laura pounded the Gulf Coast for hours with ferocious wind, torrential rains and rising seawater as it roared ashore over southwestern Louisiana near the Texas border early Thursday, threatening the lives of people who didn’t evacuate. Hours after landfall, Laura was still a Category 2 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (175 kph). Louisiana took the brunt of the damage when the Category 4 system barreled over Lake Charles, an industrial and casino city of 80,000 people. The hurricane’s top wind speed of 150 mph (241 kph) put it among the most powerful systems on record in the U.S.Read more here.

But regardless where you’re located or what types of weather your region regularly experiences, it’s always best to remain vigilant. When it comes to hurricanes and big storms, there’s always so much talk about how to prepare the insides of our homes. Therefore, it’s always better to err on the side of caution, he added. “There’s nothing wrong with being too careful.”So, the next time a big storm’s coming to town, walk around the exterior of your house, your property or your yard. You could even turn this into a project, moving just a few belongings a day, leading up to the storm.

Latasha Myles and Howard Anderson stand in their living room where they were sitting when the roof blew off around 2:30 a.m. as Hurricane Laura passed through the area in Lake Charles, Louisiana. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

“It is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute, catastrophic damage that we thought was likely," Louisiana Gov. He called Laura the most powerful hurricane to strike Louisiana, meaning it surpassed even Katrina, which was a Category 3 storm when it hit in 2005. The storm toppled trees and damaged structures as far north as central Arkansas. The storm crashed ashore in low-lying Louisiana and clobbered Lake Charles, an industrial and casino city of 80,000 people. Bucky Millet, 78, of Lake Arthur, Louisiana, considered evacuating but decided to ride out the storm with family due to concerns about the coronavirus.

Republicans decided the show must go on and, for the most part, television networks followed. The convention is taking place in the shadow of huge stories that are happening right now, CNN's Anderson Cooper said. Networks, after giving extensive coverage to the Democrats last week, are cognizant of being fair to the Republicans. The president has been showing up every night, the president could talk about it. But former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, also a CNN contributor, said Republicans were there to try and reelect President Trump and that has to continue to remain their focus.

A fire at a chemical plant, BioLab Inc., that handles chlorine for swimming pools burns on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, in Westlake, La., in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura. A fire at a Louisiana chlorine plant erupted with thick, billowing smoke Thursday after Hurricane Laura plowed through part of the country's petrochemical corridor with storm surges and fierce wind, forcing residents around the plant to shelter in their homes. In the Lake Charles area, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality workers with hand-held monitors did not immediately detect chlorine releases from the fire at the BioLab plant, agency spokesman Greg Langley said. BioLabs corporate parent said the plant had been shut down and evacuated ahead of the storm, and no plant employees were injured. State environmental officials planned to survey the entire storm area from the air to look for signs of any other industry fires or leaks, Langley said.

Watch live satellite tracking and forecasting of Hurricane Laura. Laura rapidly gained strength Wednesday, raising fears that it could come ashore as a Category 4 hurricane with a 20-foot storm surge that forecasters said would be “unsurvivable” and capable of sinking entire communities. Satellite images show that Laura has become “a formidable hurricane” in recent hours, threatening to smash homes and sink entire communities. A Category 4 hurricane will do catastrophic damage: “Power outages will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months,” the weather service says.

Victoria Nelson with her children Autum Nelson, 2, Shawn Nelson, 7, and Asia Nelson, 6, line up to board a bus to evacuate Lake Charles, La., Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020, ahead of Hurricane Laura. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)GALVESTON, Texas – Laura strengthened Wednesday into a menacing Category 4 hurricane, raising fears of a 20-foot storm surge that forecasters said would be "unsurvivable” and capable of sinking entire communities. In Lake Charles, National Guard members drove school buses around neighborhoods, offering to pick up families. By Wednesday afternoon, Laura had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) as it churned about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Lake Charles, Louisiana, moving northwest at 16 mph (26 kph). Forecasters predict winds will reach at least 145 mph winds but may weaken ever so slightly before landfall.

The Latest on Hurricane Laura (all times local):GALVESTON, Texas Hurricane Laura strengthened Wednesday into an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane," The National Hurricane Center said. Forecasters warn of catastrophic storm surge, extreme winds and flash flooding" and 20 feet (6 meters) of storm surge. Tropical storm winds Wednesday afternoon reached the coast of Louisiana where water levels started to rise. Laura is predicted to reach at least 145 mph (233 kph) winds, but may weaken ever so slightly before landfall. -GALVESTON, Texas Texas Gov.

Victoria Nelson with her children Autum Nelson, 2, Shawn Nelson, 7, and Asia Nelson, 6, line up to board a bus to evacuate Lake Charles, La., Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020, ahead of Hurricane Laura. Laura strengthened Wednesday into a menacing Category 4 hurricane, raising fears of a 20-foot storm surge that forecasters said would be "unsurvivable and capable of sinking entire communities. Authorities implored coastal residents of Texas and Louisiana to evacuate and worried that not enough had fled. Storm surge warnings were in effect from Freeport, Texas, to the mouth of the Mississippi River. Forecasters said storm surge topped by waves could submerge entire towns.

Oil and gas producers have evacuated platforms and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and companies are shutting down refineries in the storm's path. At the same time, OPEC was flooding the market with crude, aiming with success to put American oil producers out of business. OFF-SHORE PLATFORMSNearly half of the oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico almost 300 were evacuated by Wednesday, along with most of the offshore rigs. Producers shut in 84% of the oil produced in the region, taking about 1.6 million barrels per day off the market. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey stalled over Houston, dumping so much rain that flooding knocked out nearly a quarter of the nations refining capacity.

In Louisiana, more than 800 residents in 11 nursing homes were also evacuated, according to the state health department. Ron Payne, CEO of Southwest LTC, which runs nursing homes across Texas, has been through multiple storm evacuations over the years. Hurricane Laura is due to hit Texas as its long-term care homes have already been on edge in an unprecedented lockdown to try and keep further virus outbreaks from arising. Just when you think it couldnt get worse, theres this, said Kevin Warren of the Texas Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes and assisted living facilities. On Wednesday night, as Hurricane Laura neared, she and other staff members will hunker down in the home, grabbing naps in empty rooms.

The Atlantic is increasingly spawning more major hurricanes, according to an Associated Press analysis of NOAA hurricane data since 1950. The Atlantic now averages three major hurricanes a year, based on a 30-year running average. A study by Kossin found that, once a storm formed, the chances of its attaining major storm status globally increased by 8% a decade since 1979. Such a busy period started in 1995 and might end soon as northern Atlantic waters shift to a cooler regime, he said. In addition, he said: Climate change will be a bigger driver of losses in the future.___Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at www.twitter.com/borenbears.

Greg Abbott said the state had 200,000 hotel rooms for evacuees. Her home took on water during Hurricane Rita, which ravaged the Gulf Coast just days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Leaders in both Texas and Louisiana urged residents to flee in the final hours before landfall made it too dangerous to travel. Kidd said the convention center in Austin might be opened to temporarily house evacuees while more hotel rooms are set up for residents. He said hotel rooms are being reserved for evacuees in some nearby counties.