Northwest Louisiana is bracing to endure hurricane conditions throughout the day as Laura is projected to maintain strength even as it moves inland.
DeSoto Parish Sheriff Jason Richardson says they dealt with Rita in 2005, but Laura looks set to top that.
“We did not see the wind strength that we expect to see with this storm so I would say that this is going to be the worst storm, at least in recent history, that we have seen,” says Richardson.
The parish is heavily wooded and those winds are expected to knock down a lot of trees and power lines. Richardson says they’ve assembled their first responders group and stood up their emergency operations center in response.
Richardson says the biggest concern will be winds, which could be sustained at over 73 miles per hour, with higher gusts.
“If it holds together as they are saying then we do expect quite a catastrophic wind event here,” says Richardson.
Six to eight inches of rain are predicted for parts of the region along the storm’s path.
Richardson says it’s unusual for them to have to make hurricane plans. Most of the time when storms strike it’s them sending assets to other areas.
“Nearly half the state will be involved in this so certainly we have to be prepared to take care of here first, but we are prepared to respond to help our neighboring parishes should they need us, and we do expect that that is going to be the case,” says Richardson.
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