BEAUMONT, Texas — UPDATE: Our live coverage of Hurricane Laura's landfall has ended. Please review our YouTube channel for previous videos and come back to our homepage to see more live coverage of the aftermath of the storm.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana residents prepared for the worst as Hurricane Laura came ashore overnight Wednesday as a very powerful storm.
The National Hurricane Center upgraded Laura to a menacing Category 4 hurricane Tuesday, raising fears of a 20-foot storm surge that forecasters said would be "unsurvivable” and capable of sinking entire communities. Authorities implored coastal residents of Texas and Louisiana to evacuate and worried that not enough had fled.
The storm grew nearly 70% in power in just 24 hours to a size the National Hurricane Center called “extremely dangerous.” Drawing energy from the warm Gulf of Mexico waters, the system arrived just after midnight as the most powerful hurricane to strike the U.S. so far this year.
Hurricane Laura live streaming coverage
12News in Beaumont, Texas is your source for Hurricane Laura updates. We'll be live across all platforms before, during and after the storm. Watch live in the video above or on YouTube below.
Hurricane Laura photos
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