After lashing Central America and the Florida Keys, the storm is expected to make landfall north of Tampa on Thursday, bringing heavy rain and potentially dangerous storm surge.

There's only been one other year — 2005 — that Greek names have been needed. The National Hurricane Center on Friday announced storms called Alpha and Beta have formed in the Atlantic.

Most buildings in Lake Charles, La., were damaged by Hurricane Laura. As the city tries to rebuild amid a global pandemic, Mayor Nic Hunter worries the country will look away.

Hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves and disease outbreaks are all a preview of our hotter future. Dramatically cutting greenhouse gas emissions would help.

Laura is blamed for at least 10 deaths, and it's estimated to have caused anywhere from $4 billion to $12 billion in damages. But officials and experts say the price tag could have been far worse.

One of the most powerful storms to hit the state in living memory leaves destruction and misery in its wake, with debris from homes and businesses scattered about and at least one death.

All of the deaths that are blamed on the Category 4 storm were attributed to powerful winds, far from the shore.

Even as the storm's center nears Louisiana's border with Arkansas, a storm surge warning remains in effect for a large section of the coast.

When the storm's eyewall moved onshore around 1 a.m. ET, forecasters told people in its path, "TAKE COVER NOW!"

"Even if you're well inland, you could still see some of these impacts," National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham says.

Hurricane Laura will have winds of at least 130 mph - a Category 4 storm - when it makes landfall near the Louisiana-Texas border. Its storm surge could be up to 14 feet.

Laura is expected to make landfall on the Texas-Louisiana border late Wednesday or early Thursday. Forecasts have both storms bringing heavy rain to some of the same areas in Louisiana.

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One storm is currently forecast to hit near the Texas-Louisiana border; the other could reach the Florida Panhandle. Two hurricanes hitting the Gulf at once would be unprecedented, experts say.

"We've never forecast up to 25 storms," says a NOAA expert. The expected spate of storms in 2020 could force meteorologists to resort to using the Greek alphabet to name storms later this year.