"We really dodged a bullet," Beaumont official says, as Hurricane Laura downgraded to Category 2

[TexasTowelie]

by Cassandra Pollock and Julián Aguilar; Texas Tribune


After battering the Gulf Coast at about midnight Thursday, Hurricane Laura has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm as it moves away from the Texas-Louisiana border.

About 70,000 Texans are out of power in the East Texas counties of Jefferson, Orange and Hardin counties, local media reported. The storm moved ashore in Cameron Parish, Louisiana — which borders Texas — around midnight Thursday after almost strengthening into a Category 5 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center.

But as the morning wore on, officials in Southeast Texas were sounding optimistic that their corner of the state had escaped the worst of the hurricane's impact.

"I'm very pleased to report the damage to Southeast Texas was minimal. We really dodged a bullet," state Rep. Dade Phelan, a Republican who represents part of Jefferson County and all of neighboring Orange County, tweeted Thursday morning. "Prayers for our friends in the Southwest Louisiana."

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/26/hurricane-laura-landfall-texas/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Good to see you posting, my dear TexasTowelie! And this is a lovely story. n/t

[keithbvadu2]

2. Trymp takes credit for it. 5-4-3-2-1.

[TexasTowelie]

3. The threat that Trump made about dropping a nuclear warhead on it

made the hurricane timid according to Trump. He is going to use the same tactic to solve the problems in the Middle East.