RESIDENTS of southern states have begun boarding up and fleeing as twin hurricanes are expected to hit land at the same time.

“You have until nightfall this evening to finish your preparations for Hurricane Marco and Tropical Storm Laura. Wherever you are when it gets dark tonight is where you should plan to ride out these storms for at least 72 hours,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards tweeted.

The governor said that the state has never seen anything like this.

“What we know is there’s going to be storm surge from Marco, we know that that water is not going to recede hardly at all before Laura hits, and so we’ve not seen this before and that’s why people need to be paying particular attention,” he said at a news briefing.

Hurricane Marco may delay landfall, worsening its surge as the piggybacking storms are expected to ravage the Gulf Coast this week, experts said.

The storm, which developed into a small hurricane Sunday, was initially predicted to hit southern states Monday, the Associated Press reported.

However, computer models now show Marco may stall off the coast, weakening as a storm but strengthening its storm surge – a Tsunami-like phenomenon described as the abnormal rise in seawater level during a storm that causes coastal flooding.

Models show that Tropical Storm Laura, the more dangerous of the two, could make landfall with winds exceeding 110 mph, AP reported.

Currently, Laura has been dumping water and high winds on the Dominican Republic and Haiti but is expected to onslaught the United States from Alabama all the way to Texas within just days of Marco hitting.

Laura was previously modeled to weaken after pounding Cuba but the storm skirted the island – meaning it is likely it could increase in strength while make its way through the Gulf of Mexico,  Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach told the AP.

Experts expressed high concern for New Orleans particularly, which was razed by the devastating Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

The city’s infamous levee system may not be able to handle the stress of both storms and the drainage system has been questioned since intense flooding in 2017 raised concerns about its effectiveness.

The National Hurricane Center tweeted that there is a risk of flash flooding from heavy rainfall across southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Monday and Tuesday from #Marco as it dumps up to 6 inches of rain.

Experts told the AP, however, that the twin storms could cause as much as two feet of rain to parts of Louisiana.

The White House said it is monitoring the storms in an announcement posted to Twitter.

“President Trump has already approved emergency declarations for Puerto Rico and Louisiana. If you are in the path of the storms, please follow the instructions of your state & local officials!” White House officials tweeted.

Source: Read Full Article