Louisiana

The remnants of Hurricane Laura are unleashing heavy rain hundreds of miles inland from a path of death and destruction left along the northwest Gulf Coast.

The Calcasieu Parish Police Jury had voted just weeks prior to leave the South’s Defenders Monument on the grounds of the courthouse.

One of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the U.S. pounded the Gulf Coast with wind and rain early Thursday morning, but Laura rapidly weakened and was downgraded to a tropical storm by afternoon.

Laura pounded the Gulf Coast with heavy wind and torrential rain, unleashing a wall of seawater on cities in its path.

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.

The Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office issued a mandatory evacuation and grim warning to residents choosing to ride out Hurricane Laura rather than evacuate.

Hundreds of volunteers, from linemen to boat crews to chainsaw crews, were assisting local governments and first responders to prepare to provide relief in the wake of the hurricane’s destruction.

More than 385,000 residents were told to flee the Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur, and another 200,000 were ordered to leave low-lying Calcasieu Parish in southwestern Louisiana, where forecasters said as much as 13 feet (3.96 meters) of storm surge topped by waves could submerge whole communities.

Laura became a hurricane on Tuesday morning as it entered the warm and deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, gathering strength on a path to hit the U.S. coastline early Thursday as a major hurricane that could unleash a surge of seawater higher than a basketball hoop and swamp entire towns.

The 17-year-old hostess told news outlets she was working at a Baton Rouge Chili’s last weekend when a party of 11 people arrived and wanted to be seated together.

A pregnant woman from Baton Rouge passed away Thursday due to complications from COVID-19, but doctors at Woman’s Hospital successfully delivered her baby,

A Louisiana police department apologized and one of its officers was fired over a Facebook comment suggesting he thought it was “unfortunate” more black people have not died from the coronavirus.

When doughnuts are life so you line up outside of a newly reopened Krispy Kreme doughnut shop at 2 a.m.

Dog really is baby’s best friend – as shown by a little seven-month-old boy in Louisiana who could not contain his laughter as he played with his two-year-old Labradoodle during lockdown.

Louisiana pastor Tony Spell defied house arrest on Sunday and held a church service with more than 100 congregants present.

A pastor in Louisiana is asking congregants and other Americans to donate their stimulus checks to his church.

The couple dropped off some of the masks Friday at the Austin Fire Department.