#Hurricane Laura forecast to make landfall as Category 3

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Tropical Storm Laura in an image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAA

More than half a million people in Texas and Louisiana were ordered to evacuate Tuesday ahead of Hurricane Laura — as the latest forecast predicted the storm will slam into the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 monster within the next 48 hours.

Laura was upgraded to a hurricane Tuesday morning and will continue to intensify as it swirls closer to the coasts of Texas and Louisiana — where it will make landfall sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning as a Category 3, the National Hurricane Center said.

It’s moving over the south-central Gulf of Mexico and will pick up strength from the warm waters there.

More than 400,000 people in east Texas and 125,000 in Louisiana were ordered to evacuate Tuesday ahead of the hurricane.

“Today is the day. The weather is still nice here in Galveston,” the city’s mayor pro tem, Craig Brown, told the Weather Channel. “This is the day for everybody to get their belongs together and, for the safety of themselves and their family, to go ahead and evacuate today. Do not wait.”

A Category 3 hurricane packs wind speeds of 111 to 129 mph and causes devastating damage, according to the classification on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

The NHC warned that Laura will bring heavy rainfall as it moves inland Wednesday night into Saturday that could cause widespread flash flooding.

It also said there was a threat of a “life-threatening” storm surge from San Luis Pass, Texas, to the mouth of the Mississippi River — an expanse of nearly 400 miles.

Laura has already barreled through Puerto Rico, Cuba and Hispaniola, killing at least 23 people in the Caribbean, according to the Weather Channel.

The fierce storm system comes on the heels of Tropical Storm Marco, which was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane Sunday night but has since been downgraded to a tropical depression. Marco made landfall Monday evening near the mouth of the Mississippi River as a tropical storm.

The region has been bracing for the back-to-back hurricanes for days, with some cities issuing mandatory evacuations and officials warning to use Tuesday to prepare.