Officials on the Gulf Coast are warning residents to prepare as Hurricane Delta barrels toward the United States.
The Category 2 storm is moving northwest through the middle of the Gulf of Mexico at 14 miles per hour and packing maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, according to a late Thursday morning bulletin by the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane warnings are in effect from the eastern Texas coast through much of coastal Louisiana, with a tropical storm warning spanning the rest of the Bayou State.
Storm surge warnings are also in effect across the area.
“This is a life-threatening situation. Persons located within these areas should take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising water and the potential for other dangerous conditions. Promptly follow evacuation and other instructions from local officials,” the NHC cautioned.
Delta, which formed south of Jamaica, rapidly strengthened from a tropical depression to a Category 4 hurricane in just about 30 hours, a record for this year’s season. The cyclone then weakened a bit and made landfall Wednesday morning in Mexico at the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula as a strong Category 2 hurricane.
Officials in Mexico have said nobody was killed or injured by Delta, although hundreds of tourists ended up hunkering down in storm shelters prior to its arrival, according to the Associated Press. About one-third of the Yucatan Peninsula, or about 266,000 customers, lost power from the tropical system.
Slept in the car for a few hours, then woke up and helped some cops drag trees off the road to clear a lane for cars. A pocket of extremely heavy tree damage in Punta Nizuc. #Hurricane #DELTA #Mexico pic.twitter.com/D2SON8AogZ
— Josh Morgerman (@iCyclone) October 7, 2020
The storm is forecast to make landfall along the Louisiana coast sometime Friday evening. Its predicted track takes it over the same area where Hurricane Laura made landfall as a major Category 4 hurricane in late August. Laura was the strongest storm of the season so far and killed several people.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards cautioned residents on Thursday that Delta is fast approaching and that they need to begin preparing now before the system’s effects begin to start lashing the coast.
“We have today to prepare ourselves and our families for the arrival of Hurricane #Delta. We have until nightfall to make sure that we take care of what we need to before we start feeling the effects of this storm. Let’s make it count,” Edwards said in a tweet.
We have today to prepare ourselves and our families for the arrival of Hurricane #Delta. We have until nightfall to make sure that we take care of what we need to before we start feeling the effects of this storm. Let’s make it count. #lagov #lawx pic.twitter.com/GOSYSQR4UD
— John Bel Edwards (@LouisianaGov) October 8, 2020
The formation of Hurricane Delta, which is a Greek letter, comes after the record-breaking 2020 Atlantic hurricane season ran out of names. The last and only other time was in 2005, which included storms named Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta.
Hurricane Hunters found a maximum wind of 105 mph in their latest pass through the center of Hurricane #Delta
It continues to strengthen pic.twitter.com/u27wPO8ilK
— Greg Diamond (@gdimeweather) October 8, 2020
