LAKE CHARLES, La. — Hurricane Delta crashed onshore Friday in southwestern Louisiana as a Category 2 storm, ripping tarps from already damaged roofs and slinging debris piled by roads along a path of destruction inflicted by Hurricane Laura only six weeks earlier.
The center of the hurricane made landfall about 6 p.m. near the town of Creole — a distance of only about 15 miles from where Laura struck in August.
Delta hit with top winds of 100 mph but rapidly grew weaker. Within an hour hitting land, the National Hurricane Center downgraded it to a Category 1 storm with 85 mph winds.
Still, forecasters warned Delta was pounding the coast with life-threatening storm surge that could reach up to 11 feet. Flash flood warnings were posted for much of southwest Louisiana and parts of neighboring Texas.
In the city of Lake Charles, about 30 miles inland from where Delta made landfall, winds at tarp-covered roofs of buildings that Hurricane Laura battered when it barreled through in late August and killed at least 27 people in the state.
Ernest Jack lay in bed trying to sleep as water leaked through the ceiling of his Lake Charles home while Delta marched inland Friday night. He said the tarp he’d used to cover his damaged roof after Laura hadn’t blown off and his windows were covered to protect against flying debris.
“It’s raining real hard; it’s flooding; the wind is strong,” Jack said. “I’m OK. I’m not worried about nothing, just praying that everything goes well.”
Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said the latest storm was tearing tarps off homes across the city — where he estimated 95% buildings suffered damage from Laura. Piles of moldy mattresses, sawed-up trees and other leftover debris lined the city’s largely vacant streets when Delta arrived. Hunter said some of that debris was being blown around and floating in streets.
“I’m in a building right now with a tarp on it and just the sound of the tarp flapping on the building sounds like someone pounding with a sledgehammer on top of the building,” Hunter said. “It’s pretty intense.”
In the town of Lake Arthur, the wind was so strong it was pulling shingles off L’Banca Albergo Hotel, an eight-room boutique hotel in what used to be a bank.
“I probably don’t have a shingle left on the top of this hotel,” said owner Roberta Palermo, as the winds gusted outside.
Palmero said the electricity was out and across the street she could see pieces of metal coming off the roof of a 100-year-old building. Unsecured trash cans were flying around the streets.
One of her guests was Johnny Weaver, a meteorology student who traveled to Louisiana from Tampa to study the storm.
“There is a lot of power lines down all over the place, there’s … really deep water in certain spots,” Weaver said, speaking from the hotel’s front porch.
