Hurricane Laura pounded the Gulf Coast with ferocious wind and torrential rain and unleashed a wall of seawater that could push 40 miles inland as the Category 4 storm roared ashore Thursday in Louisiana near the Texas border. At least one person was killed.

Laura arrived as one of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the U.S. based on its wind speed of 150 mph. Louisiana took the brunt of the damage when the system barreled over Lake Charles, an industrial and casino city of 80,00 people, and nearby low-lying fishing communities. Powerful gusts blew out windows in tall buildings and tossed around glass and debris.

Police spotted a floating casino that came unmoored and hit a bridge. Drone video showed water surrounding homes with much of their roofs peeled away.

Louisiana has confirmed three storm deaths, all reportedly from falling trees, according to the governor's office.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said Louisiana's first fatality was a 14-year-old girl who died when a tree fell on her home in Leesville, more than 100 miles inland. Acadia Parish Sheriff K.P. Gibson told KLFY in Lafayette that a 60-year-old man in Acadia Parish was also killed by a falling tree.

“It looks like 1,000 tornadoes went through here. It’s just destruction everywhere," said Brett Geymann, who rode out the storm with three family members in Moss Bluff, near Lake Charles. He described Laura passing over his house with the roar of a jet engine around 2 a.m.

“There are houses that are totally gone. They were there yesterday, but now gone," he said.

As crews began to assess the damage, Governor Edwards warned there was a large chemical plant fire in Westlake, less than five miles from Lake Charles.

Videos from nearby showed large plums of black smoke rising from a chemical plant located across the Calcasieu.


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