At 100 PM CDT, the eye of Hurricane Laura was located near latitude 27.3 North, longitude 92.5 West. Laura is moving toward the northwest near 16 mph (26 km/h). A gradual turn toward the north-northwest and north is expected later today and tonight. On the forecast track, Laura will approach the Upper Texas and southwest Louisiana coasts this evening and move inland within that area tonight. The center of Laura is forecast to move over northwestern Louisiana tomorrow, across Arkansas Thursday night, and over the mid-Mississippi Valley on Friday.
National Weather Service forecasts include “unsurvivable storm surge” with large and destructive waves will cause catastrophic damage from Sea Rim State Park, Texas, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana, including Calcasieu and Sabine Lakes. This surge could penetrate up to 30 miles inland from the immediate coastline. Only a few hours remain to protect life and property and all actions should be rushed to completion.
GIC maintains activation Level 2 – Partial Activation for California Wildfires and Hurricane Laura as well.
Initial areas of interest for imagery collection have been identified for the following areas:
- Ultra-high resolution – Lake Charles, Louisiana
- Ultra-high resolution – Beaumont, Texas
- Ultra-high resolution – Port Arthur, Texas
- Multiple resolution – coastal collect from Cameron, Louisiana to Galveston, Texas
- High resolution – multi-jurisdictional regional collect
As this storm make landfall, GIC members are strongly encouraged to share specific requirements and areas of interest for collection with the Gray Sky team by emailing graysky@geointel.org.
The Ground Truth 