Hurricane Laura has ripped through southwestern Louisiana, destroying buildings in the city of Lake Charles and killing a 14-year-old girl after making landfall in the early morning as one of the most powerful storms to hit the state.
The hurricane's first reported US fatality was a 14-year-old girl in Leesville, Louisiana, who died when a tree fell on her house, a spokeswoman for Governor John Bel Edwards said.
"We do expect that there could be more fatalities," the spokeswoman, Christina Stephens, said on Twitter.
A chemical plant caught fire in Laura's wake yesterday in Westlake, Louisiana, 6.4km west of Lake Charles, sending thick black smoke billowing into the sky over the wind-torn landscape near Interstate 10.
Governor Edwards warned residents in the area to shelter in place, close doors and windows and turn off air conditioners as authorities investigated. Traffic was blocked on the interstate and Highway 90.
"Stay inside and wait for additional direction from local officials," Edwards wrote on Twitter.
Residents of Lake Charles heard Laura's winds howling and the sound of breaking glass as the storm passed through the city of 78,000 with winds of 137km per hour and gusts up to 206 km/h 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 flooded streets, video footage on Twitter and Snapchat showed.
A producer for the WSAZ news channel tweeted before and after images of the 22-storey Capital One tower: