BATON ROUGE, La. — Anxiety over Hurricane Laura ratcheted up along a vast stretch of the Gulf Coast on Tuesday as forecasters predicted the storm would escalate to Category 3 strength, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents to decide whether to hunker down or try to escape before it arrived.
As it churned toward the coast, Laura also rekindled unwelcome memories of past hurricanes that swamped neighborhoods, destroyed homes and left burdensome emotional and physical tolls. Officials have stressed the power of the looming storm, drawing comparisons to some of the most disastrous hurricanes to hit the region, including Rita in 2005 and Harvey in 2017.
Laura strengthened from a tropical storm into a Category 1 hurricane on Tuesday as it cut through the Gulf of Mexico on a path toward the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. Oil and gas companies were shutting down the refineries that help form the economic backbone of the Gulf Coast.
A heavily populated span of coastline spanning from the western end of Galveston Island in Texas to Lafayette in central Louisiana is facing the possibility of hurricane-level conditions, the National Hurricane Center said.
“There will be a lot of devastation wrecked upon Texas as the storm sweeps through, as well as lingering challenges that will result,” Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said during a briefing on Tuesday.
City and county officials in Texas and Louisiana have issued evacuation orders affecting about 500,000 residents, particularly those living in low-lying areas. The orders, some of them voluntary, include parts of Orange, Jefferson and Chambers Counties, as well as Galveston, Texas, and the Texas A&M University campus in the city.
Mandatory evacuation orders were imposed on Tuesday in Texas and Louisiana, including in Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, which has the nation’s largest oil refinery, as well as Lake Charles, La. Portions of Jefferson, Lafourche and Plaquemines Parishes in Louisiana have also told residents to evacuate.
On Tuesday, Lina Hidalgo, the county judge in Harris County, which includes Houston, issued a voluntary evacuation order for residents in coastal portions of the county on Galveston Bay, including Baytown, Seabrook, Nassau Bay, Friendswood, and parts of Pasadena and Clear Lake. South Houston was not included in the order, although Ms. Hidalgo had initially mentioned it.
“Let me make this as clear as possible, all of us need to be prepared for the very real potential of a direct hit from this storm,” Ms. Hidalgo, the chief elected official for the county, said. “This is truly when we have to say prepare for the worst.”
Mr. Abbott warned residents to be prepared for “very high winds” and surging water of up to 10 feet when the storm slams into the eastern part of Texas on Wednesday night or early Thursday. The storm is also likely to spawn tornadoes and leave a “lot of devastation” as it roars through the state, the governor said.
Laura has already unleashed heavy rainfall across Cuba and Jamaica. The storm made landfall in western Cuba on Monday night, churning through Artemisa and Pinar del Río Provinces. The island’s civil defense force oversaw the evacuation of 334,000 people, and while damage was being assessed on Tuesday, no casualties had been reported.
After tearing through Cuba, Laura continued to gain strength. Forecasters warned that it could become a Category 3 hurricane before landfall on the Gulf Coast as it gathers energy from the Gulf’s warm waters. Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana compared the storm to Hurricane Rita, which caused an estimated $25.2 billion in damage.
In Texas, thousands of emergency workers, including the National Guard, were poised to spring into action with motorboats, aircraft and other equipment when the storm hits.
Mr. Abbott warned Texans to move swiftly to protect themselves and their property and to “be very aware” of surging water, which is predicted to engulf much of coastal East Texas. “It can easily sweep you away, causing you to lose your life,” the governor warned.
Laura was approaching the United States on the anniversary of another major Houston-area storm, Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall in Texas on Aug. 25, 2017, lashing the Gulf Coast with extensive flooding and causing nearly $125 billion in damage.
Still, Mr. Abbott, a Republican, said that Laura was not likely to be a “replica” of that earlier monster storm, and that it was expected to be more of a “wind event” than Harvey was. He said he expected that the resilience he saw in residents then would be on display again even in the face of considerable hardship.
“We were bruised, but we were not broken,” he said.
Even so, a sense of weariness has set in for many living on the coast, recalling the anguish of destroyed homes and neighborhoods and the thicket of bureaucracy and hard work that comes with recovery.
“I’ve been through so many of these,” said Jady Regard, who owns a pecan company with a shop based in New Iberia, La., near Lafayette. Mr. Regard, 51, said he planned to stay put but was keeping a close watch on the forecast. “If you live in Louisiana, it’s the price you pay.”
Rick Rojas reported from Baton Rouge, and Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio from Boston. Reporting was contributed by Ed Augustin, Henry Fountain, David Montgomery, Christina Morales and Campbell Robertson.
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