Hurricane Laura tore through south-west Louisiana, destroying buildings in the city of Lake Charles and killing four people, including a 14-year-old girl, after making landfall early on Thursday.
It was one of the most powerful storms to hit the state.
The first fatality was reported in Leesville, Louisiana, when the girl died after a tree fell on her house, a spokeswoman for Governor John Bel Edwards said.
“We do expect that there could be more fatalities,” Christina Stephens said on Twitter.
The Category 4 storm prompted warnings of "unsurvivable" ocean surges and evacuation orders for hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents before it reached the US state.
The storm passed through Lake Charles, with a population of 78,000, with winds of 137kph gusting to 206kph in the hour after landfall.
The windows of the city’s 22-floor Capital One Tower were blown out, street signs were toppled and pieces of wooden fence and debris from collapsed buildings lay scattered in the streets, footage on Twitter and Snapchat showed.
Satellite images revealed the immense size of the hurricane as it made landfall about 9am UAE time, while TV pictures showed heavy rain lashing the coastal city of Lake Charles and powerful wind uprooting trees.
Earlier the National Hurricane Centre warned that Laura could pummel the Louisiana and Texas coasts with an "unsurvivable storm surge" of up to six metres, and that tornadoes could form at the southern edges of the weather system.
"Take cover now. Treat these imminent extreme winds as if a tornado were approaching and move immediately to the safe room in your shelter," the centre said on Twitter.
"Take action now to protect your life."
While the worst projections were not realised, damaging winds and flooding rain would continue to spread inland later on Thursday, the centre said.
Laura made landfall just before 1am in the small town of Cameron, Louisiana, the centre said.
It rapidly weakened to a Category 1 storm on Thursday morning with maximum sustained winds of 120kph), and was forecast to be downgraded to a tropical storm later in the day.
The centre warned that high water levels would persist along the Gulf Coast for hours as Laura moved north and then north-east.
The storm slammed the heart of the US oil industry, forcing oil rigs and refineries to shut down production.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott warned earlier that Laura's power was "unprecedented" and urged citizens to "get out of harm's way".
"Your property can be replaced," Mr Abbott said. "Your life cannot."
Vice President Mike Pence, speaking on the third night of the Republican National Convention, urged people in the storm's path to "heed state and local authorities".
The National Guard said it had more than 1,000 members in Texas to help with hurricane response.
Its assistance included 20 aircraft and more than 15 shelter teams.
In the Texas town of La Porte, near Houston, residents were stocking up on essentials and a voluntary evacuation was in place.
"I'm a little nervous but then I'm also like, 'OK, I know I'm going to be safe inside my apartment," Matthew Jones, 28, a security guard, told AFP.
"I got bread. I got lunch meat, peanut butter, jelly, gallons of water, snacks."
Mr Bel Edwards tweeted that parts of I-10, the interstate motorway that connects all of the southern US, were closed before Laura's arrival.
He urged those leaving to head north to drive around the closed section.
But the eastern coastal counties of Texas that had braced for the worst were largely spared Laura’s rage.
Galveston’s acting mayor, Craig Brown, told MSNBC that he was cancelling the island city’s evacuation on Thursday after the storm turned more towards Louisiana.
Becky Ames, the Mayor of Beaumont, Texas, said the situation was “manageable".
Mr Abbott was planning to travel to eastern Texas to survey the damage on Thursday, his spokesman said.
About 650,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana and Texas were without power early on Thursday, and local utilities in the storm’s path warned that would climb as the storm marched inland.
In New Orleans, devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the historic French Quarter was empty of tourists.
Sandbags were piled up in front of the doorways of colonial-style buildings and windows were boarded up with plywood.
The city remains traumatised from Katrina, which made landfall as a Category 3 storm, flooding 80 per cent of the city and killing more than 1,800 people.
Laura earlier caused flooding in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, killing at least 25 people.
The Atlantic storm season, which runs through November, could be one of the busiest ever this year, with the hurricane centre predicting as many as 25 major storms.
Laura is the 12th so far.
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
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Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
ICC Awards for 2021
MEN
Cricketer of the Year – Shaheen Afridi (Pakistan)
T20 Cricketer of the Year – Mohammad Rizwan (Pakistan)
ODI Cricketer of the Year – Babar Azam (Pakistan)
Test Cricketer of the Year – Joe Root (England)
WOMEN
Cricketer of the Year – Smriti Mandhana (India)
ODI Cricketer of the Year – Lizelle Lee (South Africa)
T20 Cricketer of the Year – Tammy Beaumont (England)
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte
Jawbone Press
Credits
Produced by: Colour Yellow Productions and Eros Now
Director: Mudassar Aziz
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Jimmy Sheirgill, Jassi Gill, Piyush Mishra, Diana Penty, Aparshakti Khurrana
Star rating: 2.5/5
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
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Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
One in nine do not have enough to eat
Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.
One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.
The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.
Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.
It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.
On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.
Outside emergencies, the WFP provides school meals to up to 25 million children in 63 countries, while working with communities to improve nutrition. Where possible, it buys supplies from developing countries to cut down transport cost and boost local economies.
The story of Edge
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, established Edge in 2019.
It brought together 25 state-owned and independent companies specialising in weapons systems, cyber protection and electronic warfare.
Edge has an annual revenue of $5 billion and employs more than 12,000 people.
Some of the companies include Nimr, a maker of armoured vehicles, Caracal, which manufactures guns and ammunitions company, Lahab
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
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Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Read more from Aya Iskandarani
T20 World Cup Qualifier, Muscat
UAE FIXTURES
Friday February 18: v Ireland
Saturday February 19: v Germany
Monday February 21: v Philippines
Tuesday February 22: semi-finals
Thursday February 24: final
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
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