Louisiana Gov. Edwards calls Hurricane Laura 'huge threat to life,' storm may be worst since 1957

close

Video

Gov. John Bel Edwards on Hurricane Laura: We've got a very serious storm on our hands

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards urges residents to pay close attention to emergency officials as the powerful storm approaches the Gulf Coast.

Louisiana Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards told "Your World" Wednesday that Hurricane Laura could be the strongest storm to hit the southwestern part of the state in more than six decades.

"Things are very, very serious," Edwards told host Neil Cavuto. "We have a storm that’s a Category 4. It’s going to make landfall just after midnight. It continues to grow in size and intensity and quite frankly the storm surge is going to be a huge threat to life and, in fact, the National Weather Service took the unprecedented step of saying the storm surge is going to be unsurvivable.

"We need everybody paying close attention to [and] following the directions of the local elected officials but this is a big one, perhaps the strongest storm to hit southwest Louisiana since Hurricane Audrey in 1957."

Audrey made landfall as a category 3 storm and wreaked havoc on the offshore oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico. It caused more than 400 deaths caused a storm surge that reached as far as 20 miles inland.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"Down in Cameron Parish, where we expect to be ground zero, there has been a parish-wide mandatory evacuation in place since yesterday," Edwards added. "We expect most of that parish to look just like the rest of the Gulf of Mexico for a couple of days and then on into Calcasieu Parish where we have Lake Charles and evacuations that continue."

The governor added that: "I will tell you we are certain that at this time tomorrow we will be doing search and rescue for a large number of individuals, many of whom are going to need to require sheltering after that for some period of time before they can go home