IN PHOTOS: Cleanup underway after Hurricane Laura devastates U.S., kills 6
The massive storm is one of the strongest to ever strike that part of the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Though now just a tropical depression, Laura left behind widespread damage, hundreds of thousands of power outages, and at least six reported deaths so far.
As the cleanup continues Friday, there are around 750,000 homes and businesses still without power across Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, according to poweroutage.us. The storm's powerful winds seriously damaged or destroyed numerous structures. The bulk of the outages are in Louisiana.
Among the crises left behind by the storm's passage was a chemical fire at a chlorine plant near Lake Charles, with a plume of smoke visible from highway I-10, which was closed.
Local shelter in place warnings have been issued, and the Louisiana State Police Emergency Services Unit is working to contain the situation. It's not clear how the fire started, and the plant's employees had been evacuated ahead of the storm.
Across the region, NOLA.com reports some 1,400 oil wells were in the storm's path, though it's not clear how many were damaged by its passage.
Thousands of people were evacuated ahead of the storm, including some 6,500 people in Cameron Parish, the main landfall site, but stage authorities said at least 150 people in the community did not heed evacuation warnings.
The storm made landfall as a high-end Category 4 storm, and though it is now a tropical depression, brought with it a life-threatening storm surge, though was lower than previously feared. According to state officials, the water rose as much as four metres (12 feet), instead of the 6 meteres (20 feet) as was predicted.
Even as the storm moves inland, it generated tornadoes as it went, and more were expected across Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama on Friday.
Below is a selection of some of the storm's impacts from social media.
Thumbnail courtesy of CNN.
