Laura Will Push State Deeper in Budget Hole
as Category 4 Storm with Violence Potential

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor
August 26, 2020

Hurricane Laura could send the state budget deficit into orbit as a catastrophic force of nature that intensified dramatically overnight into a Category 4 storm that's on track to blast into the northern end of the Texas coast early Thursday morning.

With Texas government already sinking in a $5 billion sea of red ink as a result of the coronavirus crisis and an oil price plunge, Hurricane Laura could spark a massive revenue shortfall spike that could be all but impossible to resolve without a major tax increase.

The National Hurricane Center is describing the first major tropical cycline during the pandemic as an unsurvivable storm that currently has the Lake Charles and Beaumont-Port Arthur areas in the bull's eye. Hurricane Laura was zooming in on southeast Texas and western Louisiana with 145 miles per hour winds that are expected to surpass 150 mph by the time it crashes into the shore late tonight and Wednesday morning. That would push Laura into the maximum Category 5 column.

The NHC projects that Laura will arrive with "large and destructive waves" with a surge that could penetrate 30 miles inland and leave cities in the Golden Triangle like Port Arthur, Neches and Groves under way in one of the state's main hubs for oil refineries and chemical plants.

Laura is expected to unleash her initial fury on a swath of the Gulf Coast that stretches 160 miles from Sea Rim State Park south of Port Arthur to Intracoastal City in Louisiana. Intracoastal City is about 165 miles west of New Orleans.

The oncoming storm will be the fourth major hurricane to rip into Texas during the current century - with Harvey in 2017 as the most expensive with a price tag of more than $2 billion that the federal government helped cover substantially. Harvey was a Category 4 storm that caused unprecedented flooding in the Houston area. Laura is a windstorm with the potential to be far more violent than Harvey and Category 3 Hurricane Rita and Ike that slammed into the Galveston and Houston areas in 2005 and 2008 respectively.

Hurricane Carla was a Category 4 storm when it plowed into Port Lavaca in 1961. Hurricanes Celia and Alecia had grown to Category 3 storms when they pummeled the Corpus Christi and Galveston-Houston areas in 1970 and 1983.

more to come ...