Hurricane Laura threatens Texas and Louisiana coasts

Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate the Texas and Louisiana coasts Tuesday as Laura strengthened into a hurricane that forecasters said could slam into the land as a significant storm with ferocious winds and deadly flooding, Report says, citing New York Times.

More than 385,000 residents were told to flee the Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston, and Port Arthur. Still more were ordered to evacuate low-lying southwestern Louisiana, where forecasters said more than 11 feet (3.35 meters) of storm surge topped by waves could submerge entire towns.

Forecasters said ocean water could push onto land along a more than 450-mile-long stretch of coast from Texas to Mississippi, and hurricane warnings will be issued later as the storm nears.

The National Hurricane Center projected that Laura would become a Category 3 hurricane before landfall, with winds of around 115 mph (185 kph), capable of devastating damage.

After killing nearly two dozen people on the island of Hispaniola, Laura passed Cuba, including 20 in Haiti and 3 in the Dominican Republic, where it knocked out power and caused intense flooding. The deaths reportedly included a 10-year-old girl whose home was hit by a tree and a mother and young son crushed by a collapsing wall.