hurricanes

"If ordered to evacuate by local officials, leave!" the National Weather Service office in New Orleans says. Delta's possible path includes Cameron, La., which is recovering from Hurricane Laura.

Delta went through "a very impressive rapid intensification episode," the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday morning after the storm strengthened to Category 4. It's weakened somewhat since then.

Sally is now forecast to fall just short of being a Category 3 hurricane. But flooding poses a huge threat: "Slow movement means more rain," National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham says.

Normal protocols for hurricane evacuation, aid distribution and recovery have been upended by the threat of the coronavirus.

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

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

The storm made landfall at 1 a.m. ET with maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour, just 7 miles per hour short of Category 5 classification.

The storm is expected to 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.

Federal forecasters expect 3 to 6 major hurricanes during the 2020 hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 1. Rising seas and a warmer climate make storms of all sizes more damaging.

The Category 2 hurricane is just off the coast, and its heavy winds and rains are hammering the Southeast. "If you don't need to be out," South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster says, "don't go out."