LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA - AUGUST 27: A street is seen strewn with debris and downed power lines after Hurricane Laura passed through the area on August 27, 2020 in Lake Charles, Louisiana . The hurricane hit with powerful winds causing extensive dama …
Louisiana officials now know of six deaths tied to Hurricane Laura.
The fatalities included a 24-year-old male who died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator inside his residence. A man, whose age is unknown, died of drowning while aboard a sinking ship. Earlier Thursday, a 14-year-old girl died when a tree crashed onto her family’s mobile home near Leesville, the Vernon Parish Sherriff’s Office said.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott say search and rescue teams are still looking, but they’ve found reports so far of widespread fatalities.
Gov. Abbott is crediting the evacuations of thousands of people for preventing deaths in Texas. Edwards says they are only beginning to assess the damage.
RELATED: Hurricane Laura slams Louisiana with fierce wind, catastrophic storm surge
Both governors say the storm surge appears to have been not as bad as they feared.
Abbott said the hurricane’s storm surge hit the East Texas communities of Port Arthur, Beaumont, and Orange “pretty hard” overnight, and the eye of the hurricane has continued to move about 100 miles north along the Texas-Louisiana state line.
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Laura will be the seventh named storm to strike the U.S. this year, setting a new record for U.S. landfalls by the end of August. The old record was six in 1886 and 1916, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.