The company that operated a Georgia chlorine plant with a history of explosions and chemical fires that created toxic clouds has decided not to rebuild its Conyers manufacturing plant.

Know your zone to make sure you're ready if and when a storm threatens your area.

OUC said the increase is because of the rise in natural gas prices, and called the rate hike a “pass-through cost.”

The report says that it appears the Earth is now hotter than it has been any time since the last Ice Age more than 125,000 years ago.

Flag Day is a day to celebrate the Stars and Stripes, but here are some things you may not know.

Nine months after two back-to-back hurricanes hammered their towns, scores of coastal Louisiana residents are still struggling to recover.

Know your zone to make sure you're ready if and when a storm threatens your area.

The National Hurricane Center says that Hurricane Delta caused nearly three billion dollars in damage when it hit on Oct. 9.

The combination of record-breaking wildfire and hurricane seasons to intense severe weather events led to 22 billion-dollar disasters across the country, the most on record. Map of approximate location of 2020's Billion-Dollar Disasters. A record shattering 22 billion-dollar disasters occurred in 2020. Top 5 billion-dollar disasters of 2020. The average annual billion-dollar disasters from 1980-2020 is 7.

– As southwest Louisiana recovers from the back-to-back hurricanes that hammered the region this year, signs of progress compete with lingering evidence of mass destruction. Hurricane Laura roared ashore in southwestern Louisiana on Aug. 27 as a Category 4 storm just south of Lake Charles. According to Louisiana government figures, nearly 47,000 homes were damaged by Hurricane Laura, with about 16,000 of those in need of major repairs. The bulk of those homes are in Calcasieu Parish, home to the state's fifth-largest city, Lake Charles, with 80,000 residents. A Facebook group set up after Hurricane Laura has become a lifeline for struggling residents.

Blue tarps cover houses in the aftermath of Hurricane Delta, Saturday Oct. 10, 2020, in Iowa, La. – Michele Vincent’s home was largely intact in spite of hurricanes Laura and Delta. Coastal Cameron Parish had about 9,800 residents when Hurricane Rita hit in 2005. “Leave Cameron Parish and go into Calcasieu it's bad there too. They were the only red lights we had in Cameron Parish.

A 70-year-old woman in Iberia Parish died in a fire likely caused by a natural gas leak following damage from Hurricane Delta, the Louisiana Department of Health said Sunday. Clair Hebert Marceaux lost her home in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, during Hurricane Laura and said the community was hard at work on rebuilding when Delta struck. “We can’t lose our momentum,” she said, though she added there was “utter devastation” in the area. Earnestine and Milton Wesley had decided to ride out Delta in their Lake Charles home, damaged by Laura. “And with God’s help we made it.”After blowing ashore, Delta moved over Lake Charles, a city where Laura damaged nearly every home and building.

John Bel Edwards spoke in Jennings after flying over the damage from Hurricane Delta. —-7 a.m.MIAMI — Tropical Storm Delta is sliding over northern Louisiana with weakening winds after dropping several inches of rain in the state. ___3:50 a.m.MIAMI — Wind speeds associated with Tropical Storm Delta are decreasing as the system moves inland over Louisiana and Mississippi. ___1 a.m.MIAMI — Delta has been downgraded from a once powerful hurricane to a tropical storm as it moves inland across the U.S. South. ____7 p.m.Hurricane Delta has weakened to a Category 1 storm as it moves inland along Louisiana’s southwestern coast.

Marcus Peterson walks past a downed tree in his yard after Hurricane Delta moved through, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020, in Jennings, La. It then moved over Lake Charles, a city where Hurricane Laura damaged nearly every home and building in late August. While Delta was a weaker storm than Category 4 Laura, it brought significantly more flooding, Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said. Forecasters warned that heavy rain, storm surges and flash floods continued to pose dangers in areas from Texas to Mississippi. They arrived back in Lake Charles last weekend, got a new roof on Monday and had to evacuate again Thursday.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Delta is moving further inland over southwestern Louisiana as a weak Category 1 hurricane. ___4 p.m.MIAMI — Forecasters expect Hurricane Delta to make landfall in southwest Louisiana in the next few hours. ___11:10 a.m.WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says the Federal Emergency Management Agency is prepared as Hurricane Delta churns toward the U.S. Gulf Coast. ___4 a.m.MIAMI — Hurricane conditions and life-threatening storm surge are forecast for southwestern Louisiana when Hurricane Delta makes landfall, which is expected Friday evening. ___1 a.m.A hurricane warning, storm surge warning and tropical storm warnings are in effect for Hurricane Delta, a major hurricane spinning toward the U.S. Gulf Coast.

This GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken Friday, Oct. 9, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, and provided by NOAA, shows Hurricane Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. – Ripping tarps from already damaged roofs and scattering debris piled by roadsides, Hurricane Delta inflicted a new round of destruction on Louisiana as it struck communities still reeling after Hurricane Laura took a similar path just six weeks earlier. Delta's reach stretched as far west as Galveston, Texas, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from where the storm struck Louisiana. Tropical Storm Marco fizzled as it hit the southeast Louisiana tip just three days before Laura struck. “The wind is much worse than what Hurricane Laura brought,” Gove said in a message on Twitter.

NEW ORLEANS – The Latest on Hurricane Delta (all times CDT):10 p.m.MIAMI — Hurricane Delta has gotten stronger as it marches toward the U.S. Gulf Coast, now packing top sustained winds of 120 mph (195 kph). ___7 p.m.MIAMI — Major Hurricane Delta is trekking ever closer to the northern U.S. Gulf coast, and forecasters say the storm could strengthen further during the nighttime hours. — Huge piles of debris caused by Hurricane Laura in August stretched along roadways in Bell City, southeast of Lake Charles. John Bel Edwards says the most recent forecast for Hurricane Delta has the storm making landfall “almost precisely” where Hurricane Laura struck in August. John Bel Edwards is using telephone and text messages to urge Louisiana residents to prepare for Hurricane Delta.

The current forecast has the same areas that were devastated by Hurricane Laura in late August receiving another strike from Delta, a strong hurricane, on Friday. Delta rapidly intensified in the Western Caribbean going from a tropical depression to a Category 4 hurricane in just 30 hours. In a 24-hour period, Wilma’s wind speed increased a whopping 105 mph, from a tropical storm to a monster Category 5 hurricane. Water temperature in the Gulf of Mexico with the current forecast of Hurricane Delta. With that said, Delta could still strike the North Gulf Coast as a category 2 or 3 hurricane.

The projected path included the southwest area of Louisiana where Category 4 Hurricane Laura made landfall less than two months ago. Frankie Randazzo, 47, the partner of two restaurants in Lake Charles, said people in the city were extremely anxious ahead of the hurricane. Randazzo watched pieces of one of his restaurants, Panorama Music House, fly past a meteorologist’s car on a Facebook Live video during Hurricane Laura. The most recent forecast for Hurricane Delta has the storm making landfall “almost precisely” where Hurricane Laura struck — a region where homes and electrical infrastructure are still damaged, Edwards said in a radio interview. New Orleans, well to the east of the projected landfall area, was expected to escape the worst of Hurricane Delta.

The storm being watched Wednesday was Hurricane Delta, the 25th named storm of the Atlantic's unprecedented hurricane season. Forecasts placed most of Louisiana within Delta's path, with the latest National Hurricane Center estimating landfall in the state on Friday. Along with getting hit by Hurricane Laura and escaping Hurricane Sally, Louisiana saw heavy flooding June 7 from Tropical Storm Cristobal. Tropical Storm Beta prompted tropical storm warnings in mid-September as it slowly crawled up the northeast Texas coast. “Not seeing any signs of any additional tropical weather in the extended which is OK with us because we are SO DONE with Hurricane Season 2020,” they wrote.

NEW ORLEANS – The Latest on Hurricane Delta (all times CDT):10 p.m.A hurricane warning has been issued for a stretch of the northern U.S. Gulf Coast as Hurricane Delta has begun trekking on a forecast path toward Louisiana. A hurricane warning has been issued from east of Sabine Pass to Morgan City along the Louisiana coast. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency Wednesday afternoon in preparation for Hurricane Delta. God bless and stay safe.”Hurricane Delta is expected to make landfall along the Louisiana coast later in the week. ___2 p.m.NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans' mayor has urged the city’s residents to remain vigilant as the expected path of Hurricane Delta is predicted to hit the state’s coast Friday night or Saturday morning.

HOUSTON – As Tropical Storm Beta neared the Texas coast Monday, the biggest unknown was how much rainfall it could produce in areas that have already seen their share of damaging weather during a busy hurricane season. Rain from Beta was already coming down Monday in the Houston area. Earlier predictions of up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) in some areas were downgraded Monday to up to 15 inches (38 centimeters). Forecasters and officials reassured residents Beta was not expected to be another Hurricane Harvey or Tropical Storm Imelda. Harvey in 2017 dumped more than 50 inches (127 centimeters) of rain on Houston, causing $125 billion in damage in Texas.

Forecasters said Beta was not expected to bring the same amount of rainfall that Texas experienced during either Hurricane Harvey in 2017 or Tropical Storm Imelda last year. The first rain bands from Beta reached the Texas coast on Sunday, but the heaviest rain wasn't expected to arrive until Monday into Tuesday. If the system makes landfall in Texas, it would be the ninth named storm to make landfall in the continental U.S. in 2020. A tropical storm warning was in effect for Bermuda. Wilfred, which had been a tropical storm, weakened to a tropical depression earlier Sunday.

NEW ORLEANS Hurricane Laura caused significant damage at a site holding about 30% of the nations store of emergency crude oil, but three other sites still have plenty of petroleum, U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Wednesday. The damaged Strategic Petroleum Reserve site in West Hackberry, Louisiana, holds nearly 8.2 billion gallons (31 billion liters) of crude oil in 21 huge caverns deep underground. Two sites in Louisiana and two in Texas currently hold about 27.2 billion gallons (103 billion liters) of crude. The oil is held in caverns hollowed out of salt domes mountainous salt deposits that are almost entirely underground. Together, they can hold nearly 30 billion gallons (113.6 billion liters) of oil.

Some key takeaways of the immediate analysis of Laura's effects have emerged:IT WILL TAKE MONTHS TO KNOW EFFECTS:Scientists say some coastal impact from Hurricane Laura is inevitable. Bren Haase, who heads the states Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said the eastern Cameron shoreline got pounded pretty hard." SALINITY'S A PROBLEMAnother question is how long storm surge waters sit before eventually draining away. Laura took a slight jog to the East just before making landfall which probably prevented some of the worst storm surge from pushing all the way into Lake Charles. This might be in part because the storm blew through so quickly and the storm surge was so high that it simply rode over the marshes, rather than tearing them up.

ORLANDO, Fla. – One week ago, the Texas-Louisiana border was ravished by Hurricane Laura, which lashed the Gulf Coast, leaving more than a dozen dead, many injured and numerous buildings and homes destroyed. The team was deployed to some of the hardest-hit areas impacted by Hurricane Laura, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm. [READ MORE: ‘A time to pick up:’ Hurricane-hurt Louisiana begins cleanup | Red Cross of Central Florida deploys volunteers to assist Hurricane Laura victims]“Our initial assignment was to that of Lake Charles. During their mission, task force four discovered extensive wind damage to homes and buildings. So we want to thank them so much for that,” Jimmy Madriaga, a task force member, said.

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – This week the SPCA of Brevard will head to Louisiana to rescue 70 pets from kill shelters and bringing them back to Central Florida to find forever homes. According to the SPCA, dogs and cats have started arriving at rural shelters near Lafayette, Louisiana. These pets could have been lost in the storm or are from families who lost their homes during Laura. “Unfortunately, natural disasters aren’t just a crisis for humans, they are also a crisis for shelter pets,” SPCA of Brevard Executive Director Angie Friers said. The public can help by signing up to foster one of the animals currently at the shelter to help make room for the pets coming from Louisana.

Layla Winbush walks over the debris of her family's destroyed auto detailing business in Lake Charles, La., in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020. Federal and state officials are now on the ground to help residents with home repairs and hotel stays. The Federal Emergency Management Agency sent hundreds of workers to the region to help with search and rescue and other efforts. Many people in Lake Charles were still staying outside town, but James Townley said he would remain in his home, as he did during the storm. They have requested help from FEMA, but Lavergne said she didn't have a checking account in which to receive federal money.

Hazardous emissions from a chlorine plant fire, abruptly shuttered oil and gas refineries and still-to-be assessed plant damage are seeping into the air after Hurricane Laura, regulators say, but some key state and federal monitors to alert the public of air dangers remain offline in Louisiana. But some Louisiana residents and environmental advocates say a shortage of solid government information on the state of the air is typical. No word of any major industrial threat other than the chlorine plant fire had emerged by three days after Laura. By Saturday, EPA contractors had left the area of the chlorine plant fire, said Langley, the Louisiana environmental spokesman. ___This story has been corrected to reflect that the name of the Louisiana environmental group is the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, not The Bucket Brigades.

Bradley Beard calls Hurricane Laura his third strike. This is all I got.Across Cameron Parish, the coastal parish where Hurricane Laura crashed ashore early Thursday, residents dug through what was left of their belongings, covered now-stripped roofs with tarps, and took stock of the damage. Edwards called Laura the most powerful hurricane to strike Louisiana, a shocking assessment in a state where Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005. Out in western Louisiana it is the storm that came ashore a month after Katrina Hurricane Rita that evokes strong memories. Her daughters insist that they stay in Cameron Parish.

It was really, really bad instead of apocalyptic, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said. Lauren Sylvester heeded the mandatory evacuation, leaving her townhouse in Lake Charles on Wednesday to stay with her mom in New Iberia. Between the evacuation order and the storm surge projections, she didnt want to take a risk. In the end, the city got maybe half the storm surge it could have received, he said. The worst storm surge is to the east of a hurricane's eyewall because of the combination of the storm's counterclockwise whirl and northward movement.

Damage is seen at South Cameron High School in Creole, La., Friday, Aug. 28, after the storm surge receded in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura. It also led to fires at a chlorine plant in Westlake in the hard-hit Lake Charles area. Simply driving was a feat in Lake Charles. Nineteen babies who weathered the hurricane at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital were brought to other hospitals across around the state. Hurricane Laura also killed nearly two dozen people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic en route to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The hospital has its own generator and hospital administrator Alesha Alford said it was built to withstand hurricane force winds. In a roughly two-hour operation the babies in the intensive care unit were transferred by ambulance to Lake Charles Memorial Hospital, a ten-story facility on the northern side of the city. Two of them had their newborns with them while the child of the third mom was in the intensive care unit. To protect our babies, mattresses were pushed up against the windows to prevent flying glass although none of the windows ended up breaking. After making it through the hurricane, the plan was to have the babies stay in Lake Charles.

OVER THE GULF OF MEXICO - Aug. 25 In the eye of Hurricane #Laura w/ @NOAA WP-3D Orion #NOAA42 "Kermit" flight station radar showing the eyewall ahead. This marks Lundry’s second season with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters. So the Hurricane Hunters are incredibly important,” said Derrick Weitlich, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service station in Melbourne. Full Screen 1 / 9 Journalists examine damage left in the wake of Hurricane Laura, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, in Holly Beach, La. As a Hurricane Hunter flight director, Lundry describes herself as a liaison between the flight crew and the science team.

Flooding surrounds a damaged building and boat Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, in Cameron, La., after Hurricane Laura moved through the area Thursday. Simply driving in Lake Charles, a city of 80,000 residents that sustained some of the worst damage, was a feat. "If you come back to Lake Charles to stay, make sure you understand the above reality and are prepared to live in it for many days, probably weeks, Hunter wrote on Facebook. In the storm's wake, more than 600,000 homes and businesses were without power in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. Ira Lyles returned to find that his downtown Lake Charles salon called The Parlor House survived with little damage, but his home was destroyed.

Meanwhile, there are two tropical waves churning in the Atlantic. One wave was located about 850 miles east of the Windward Islands on Friday morning. The other wave was located over the eastern Atlantic Ocean, just west of the Cabo Verde Islands. Orlando will reach a high in the low 90s Friday, with a 60% chance of rain, mostly in the late afternoon. There will be a 70% chance of rain through the weekend.

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. Hurricane Laura hammered southwestern Louisiana with fierce winds and torrential rain. As it weakened an elite team of roughly 40 highly skilled firefighters from Central Florida were deployed from Orlando and arrived near Lake Charles, Louisiana. The team compromised of firefighters, rescue K9s and paramedics with Orlando Police Department, Orange County Fire Department, Seminole County Fire Department, and Clermont firefighters. Despite Lauras trail of destruction, the rescue team said they are committed to helping. The group is mobilized at an airport in Lake Charles and that floodwaters have receded.

But regardless where you’re located or what types of weather your region regularly experiences, it’s always best to remain vigilant. When it comes to hurricanes and big storms, there’s always so much talk about how to prepare the insides of our homes. Therefore, it’s always better to err on the side of caution, he added. “There’s nothing wrong with being too careful.”So, the next time a big storm’s coming to town, walk around the exterior of your house, your property or your yard. You could even turn this into a project, moving just a few belongings a day, leading up to the storm.

Latasha Myles and Howard Anderson stand in their living room where they were sitting when the roof blew off around 2:30 a.m. as Hurricane Laura passed through the area in Lake Charles, Louisiana. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A fire at a chemical plant, BioLab Inc., that handles chlorine for swimming pools burns on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, in Westlake, La., in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura. A fire at a Louisiana chlorine plant erupted with thick, billowing smoke Thursday after Hurricane Laura plowed through part of the country's petrochemical corridor with storm surges and fierce wind, forcing residents around the plant to shelter in their homes. In the Lake Charles area, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality workers with hand-held monitors did not immediately detect chlorine releases from the fire at the BioLab plant, agency spokesman Greg Langley said. BioLabs corporate parent said the plant had been shut down and evacuated ahead of the storm, and no plant employees were injured. State environmental officials planned to survey the entire storm area from the air to look for signs of any other industry fires or leaks, Langley said.

ORLANDO, Fla. A dozen linemen from the Orlando Utilities Commission are heading to Lafayette, Louisiana to help thousands who lost power on Thursday from Hurricane Laura. "The main thing is to get these people back to some sort of normalcy," Barnes said. Barnes said he's helped restore power after several hurricanes in Florida and this mission will be the first time for some of his colleagues. Crews are making a stop in Mississippi Thursday night before they arrive in Louisiana on Friday. Its not clear when they will be returning home, but OUC spokesperson believes it could take a couple of weeks.

The situation was so dire Wednesday the National Hurricane Center called Lauras storm surge unsurvivable. Storm surge is the leading cause of hurricane-related fatalities in the United States and the main reason evacuations are ordered by local officials. Lake Charles observations from Lake Charles Regional Airport from August 26-27, 2020 as Hurricane Laura made landfall along the Louisiana coast. ACE is calculated by using the intensity and duration of the storm once it reaches tropical storm status and is a better measure of how intense a storm season is than names alone. The peak of hurricane season occurs September 10.

Benjamin Luna helps recover items from the children's wing of the First Pentecostal Church that was destroyed by Hurricane Laura, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, in Orange, Texas. It is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute, catastrophic damage that we thought was likely," Louisiana Gov. He called Laura the most powerful hurricane to strike Louisiana, meaning it surpassed even Katrina, which was a Category 3 storm when it hit in 2005. The storm came ashore in low-lying Louisiana and clobbered Lake Charles, an industrial and casino city of 80,000 people. Bucky Millet, 78, of Lake Arthur, Louisiana, considered evacuating but decided to ride out the storm with family due to concerns about the coronavirus.

ORLANDO, Fla. With Hurricane Laura making landfall near the Louisiana-Texas border Thursday morning, all eyes are on the tropics. Two new tropical waves are being highlighted by the National Hurricane Center. A wave over the central tropical Atlantic, closer to the Lesser Antilles has a 10% chance for development over the next two days. The wave closer to Africa has a 20% percent chance to develop tropical characteristics over the next five days. The National Hurricane Center said the storm, which intensified rapidly Wednesday before plowing into land, came ashore at 1 a.m. CDT near Cameron, a 400-person community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of the Texas border.

Republicans decided the show must go on and, for the most part, television networks followed. The convention is taking place in the shadow of huge stories that are happening right now, CNN's Anderson Cooper said. Networks, after giving extensive coverage to the Democrats last week, are cognizant of being fair to the Republicans. The president has been showing up every night, the president could talk about it. But former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, also a CNN contributor, said Republicans were there to try and reelect President Trump and that has to continue to remain their focus.

Three years ago, on Aug. 25, Category 4 Hurricane Harvey made landfall at 10 p.m. CST roughly 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi. | Here’s how COVID-19 is impacting weather forecasting]Building damage from Hurricane Harvey in Refugio, Texas. Hurricane Harvey imagery spinning off the Texas coast. (2017) (National Hurricane Center)There were so many “firsts” with Hurricane Harvey. Visible satellite showing Hurricane Laura as a Category 4 hurricane inching closer to the TX/LA coast late Wednesday afternoon.

Winds gusted above hurricane force to 128 mph (206 kph) while Laura's northern eyewall moved onshore over Cameron Parish. A sudden storm surge knocked over cameras meant to capture the hurricane’s effects. Storm surge warnings extended from Freeport, Texas, to the mouth of the Mississippi River. Wary of opening mass shelters during a pandemic, Texas officials instead put evacuees in hotels, but Austin stopped taking arrivals before dawn because officials said they ran out of rooms. Forecasters said storm surge topped by waves could submerge entire towns.

Here's the latest on Hurricane Laura. If you need help with the Public File, call 407-291-6000.

Central Florida first responders head to Louisiana to assist with the Hurricane Laura response. If you need help with the Public File, call 407-291-6000.

As Hurricane Laura barrels toward the United States as a powerful Hurricane, Central Florida search-and-rescue teams are deploying ahead of the storm to aid those in need. Stage in place and when the storm passes through, then we’ll be ready to respond to any area that needs assistance,” Task Force 4 leader Walter Lewis said. The Florida USAR Task Force 4 will be traveling to southwest Louisiana, near Lake Charles, to meet with the Louisiana state fire marshal, who will give out orders. Every aspect of the fire service is encapsulated in this response team,” Lewis said. “Some areas, when they wake up Thursday morning, they’re not going to believe what happened,” said Stacy Stewart, a senior hurricane specialist.

GALVESTON, Texas Forecasters Hurricane Laura is now expected to rapidly power up into a 'catastrophic' Category 4 hurricane an even stronger storm than previously expected as it churns toward Texas and Louisiana, gathering wind and water that now covers much of the Gulf of Mexico. Satellite images show that Laura has become a formidable hurricane" in recent hours, threatening to smash homes and sink entire communities. It has undergone a remarkable intensification, and there are no signs it will stop soon, with shear remaining low-to-moderate over the deep warm waters of the central Gulf of Mexico," the National Hurricane Center said in a briefing early Wednesday. Lauras maximum sustained winds have increased to near 110 mph (175 kph) with higher gusts, forecasters said early Wednesday. Homes and businesses will be damaged," said Donald Jones, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which is near the bullseye of Laura's forecast track.

Greg Abbott said the state had 200,000 hotel rooms for evacuees. Her home took on water during Hurricane Rita, which ravaged the Gulf Coast just days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Leaders in both Texas and Louisiana urged residents to flee in the final hours before landfall made it too dangerous to travel. Kidd said the convention center in Austin might be opened to temporarily house evacuees while more hotel rooms are set up for residents. He said hotel rooms are being reserved for evacuees in some nearby counties.

The Atlantic is increasingly spawning more major hurricanes, according to an Associated Press analysis of NOAA hurricane data since 1950. The Atlantic now averages three major hurricanes a year, based on a 30-year running average. A study by Kossin found that, once a storm formed, the chances of its attaining major storm status globally increased by 8% a decade since 1979. Such a busy period started in 1995 and might end soon as northern Atlantic waters shift to a cooler regime, he said. In addition, he said: Climate change will be a bigger driver of losses in the future.___Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at www.twitter.com/borenbears.

In Louisiana, more than 800 residents in 11 nursing homes were also evacuated, according to the state health department. Ron Payne, CEO of Southwest LTC, which runs nursing homes across Texas, has been through multiple storm evacuations over the years. Hurricane Laura is due to hit Texas as its long-term care homes have already been on edge in an unprecedented lockdown to try and keep further virus outbreaks from arising. Just when you think it couldnt get worse, theres this, said Kevin Warren of the Texas Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes and assisted living facilities. On Wednesday night, as Hurricane Laura neared, she and other staff members will hunker down in the home, grabbing naps in empty rooms.

Oil and gas producers have evacuated platforms and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and companies are shutting down refineries in the storm's path. At the same time, OPEC was flooding the market with crude, aiming with success to put American oil producers out of business. OFF-SHORE PLATFORMSNearly half of the oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico almost 300 were evacuated by Wednesday, along with most of the offshore rigs. Producers shut in 84% of the oil produced in the region, taking about 1.6 million barrels per day off the market. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey stalled over Houston, dumping so much rain that flooding knocked out nearly a quarter of the nations refining capacity.

The Latest on Hurricane Laura (all times local):GALVESTON, Texas Hurricane Laura strengthened Wednesday into an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane," The National Hurricane Center said. Forecasters warn of catastrophic storm surge, extreme winds and flash flooding" and 20 feet (6 meters) of storm surge. Tropical storm winds Wednesday afternoon reached the coast of Louisiana where water levels started to rise. Laura is predicted to reach at least 145 mph (233 kph) winds, but may weaken ever so slightly before landfall. -GALVESTON, Texas Texas Gov.

If you are thinking, Why do hurricanes tend to make landfall at night? You are not alone. In fact, over the past four season, most of the hurricanes have made landfall during the day. This may help to skew our perception that most hurricanes make landfall at night since we were impacted. Andrew, another notable Florida hurricane, of course, made landfall before the sun came up in 1992. Hurricanes also tend to last a decent amount of time and typically span night and day, and, even though landfall may occur during the day, conditions deteriorate at night or vice versa.

ORLANDO, Fla. Hurricane Laura, projected to have a catastrophic impact on the Gulf Coast, is also affecting the weather in the Orlando area, albeit in the opposite way. Laura is taking moisture away from Central Florida on Wednesday, News 6 meteorologist Troy Bridges said. Thats why our rain chances will be at only 20%.And without the rain, the heat will be the big story, with the high in Orlando reaching 95, and a feels like temperature of 105 degrees or higher. [RELATED: Laura now forecast to be a catastrophic Category 4 hurricane]Rain chances increase to 50-60% from Thursday through the weekend. We had no official rain Tuesday, putting Orlandos deficit at 2.87 inches since January 1, Bridges said.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Kathy Burkett and Sammy Conneen are volunteers with the American Red Cross of Central Florida. On Tuesday, the two got on a plane to Texas to help ahead of Hurricane Laura. The National Hurricane Center expects Hurricane Laura to strengthen into a major hurricane before it reaches landfall between Texas and Louisiana. [LIVE TRACK: Turbocharging Laura could strike US as Category 3 hurricane]Conneen, who's been volunteering for six years, said she's been in Texas for other natural disasters. “I know that if it was us they’d be coming to help us so it’s our turn to help them,” Conneen said.