Hurricane Delta weakens after making landfall
Delta made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, packing maximum sustained winds of 100 miles per hour (161 kph), at 6 p.m. on Friday near the town of Creole, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported.
Within hours, its sustained winds had diminished to 75 mph (120 kph) and it was on the verge of being downgraded from a Category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm.
The center of Delta was on track to drift across central and northeastern Louisiana on Friday night and Saturday morning before moving into northern Mississippi and the Tennessee Valley, the NHC said.
Streets were deserted in the nearby city of Lake Charles as residents fled, filling hotels or taking shelter away from the path of the Delta, which struck weeks after Hurricane Laura plowed ashore as a Category 3 storm in late August.
