Houston Area Braces For Hurricane Marco, Tropical Storm Laura

HOUSTON, TX — In what's shaping up to be an unprecedented weather event, the Houston area is now bracing for the possibility that both Hurricane Marco and Tropical Storm Laura could wreak havoc next week on parts of Texas and the northern U.S. gulf coast.

The National Hurricane Center on Sunday upgraded Marco, the first storm of the two storms expected to make landfall in the United States, to a hurricane. Winds were at 75 miles per hour as of 11 a.m. Sunday.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued a disaster declaration for 23 counties ahead of the first storm's landfall.

The projected tracks of both storms, released Saturday afternoon by the U.S. National Hurricane Center, point to them moving through the Gulf of Mexico with Marco primarily hitting Louisiana Monday afternoon and Laura making landfall in the same general area Wednesday.

While Louisiana appears most at risk, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida are also in jeopardy.

Marco is expected to skirt the Houston area when it makes landfall and Laura could pose a greater threat to the region. Marco is predicted to affect the area around 1 p.m. Tuesday with Laura following about 24 hours later.

Kent Prochazka, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service since 1993, told the Houston Chronicle that he's never seen Houston in two cones at the same time in his career.

“All the way through Tuesday, you need to be focused on Marco,” Prochazka told the Chronicle. “After Tuesday, you need to be worried about Laura.”

Marco originally was expected to impact much of the Texas gulf coast. The shift happened the storm moved narrowly between the Yucatán Peninsula and Cuba on Saturday, allowing its center to remain over open waters and strengthen as it enters the Gulf.

That gave local forecasters confidence the storm would move more directly north.

As of Saturday, Marco had moved past the western coast of Cuba and into the Gulf of Mexico. It was heading north-northwest at 13 mph with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Marco is expected to reach hurricane strength before it hits the northern gulf coast on Monday.

The storm could bring life-threatening storm surge and heavy rain to the coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama before moving inland over eastern Texas on Tuesday into Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Laura was centered about 125 miles east-southeast of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, late Saturday afternoon, moving west at 18 mph with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.

Forecasters said that while atmospheric conditions were favorable for Laura to grow, its passage over Puerto Rico and the mountains of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba could tear it apart or weaken it before it entered warm Gulf waters conducive to growth.

If it strengthens, the storm could reach hurricane status before it hits the U.S. anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to the Texas coast. The storm is likely to bring storm surge, heavy rain and damaging winds to the same areas affected by Marco earlier in the week.

Currently, no watches or warnings are in effect for areas of the gulf coast in Laura's predicted path.

See which parts of Houston are most at risk of flooding (via the Houston Chronicle)

Both storms come just days before the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey, a category 4 hurricane that lashed the south Texas gulf coast. While Harvey made landfall near Corpus Christi on Aug. 25, the storm stalled over south and southeast Texas for days, producing catastrophic flash and river flooding.

Southeast Texas bore the brunt of the heavy rainfall, with some areas receiving more than 40 inches of rain in less than 48 hours. Cedar Bayou in Houston set a North American record when it received a total of 51.88 inches of rainfall.

After four days, Harvey killed 68 people and caused $125 billion in damage. It was the second-most damaging U.S. hurricane after Hurricane Katrina.

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Tropical Storms Marco, Laura Target U.S. Gulf Coast