HOUSTON - Laura strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane on Wednesday as it raced over evacuated oil-production platforms in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and took aim at the energy industry’s refining hub along the Texas/Louisiana coast.
A half a million people in the two states fled the storm, clogging highways and filled hotels in a rush to avoid the storm and shelters. The storm resembles 2005’s Hurricane Rita, which caused more than $18 billion in damages and killed more than 120 people, many during a hurried Texas evacuation.
I had floods on my 2020 hellscape bingo card. I didn’t have massive oil spill.