Topline Two weeks after Hurricane Laura made landfall in southwest Louisiana as the strongest hurricane by wind speed in the state since at least 1856, hundreds of thousands of people still lack access to clean water in their homes, oil sheens stretch through miles of wetlands and now mosquitos have been spawned in such numbers that thick swarms are killing cattle and horses. Linda Smoot, who evacuated from Hurricane Laura in a pickup truck with eight others, reacts as she … [+] returns to see her niece’s damaged home, in Lake Charles, La., in the aftermath of the hurricane, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) ASSOCIATED PRESS Key Facts As of Thursday afternoon, more than 280,000 people in southwest Louisiana didn’t have clean drinking water in their homes, with 14,475 lacking running water altogether. Around 85% of Calcasieu Parish, which is around 30 miles north of the coastline and includes the city of Lake Charles, remained without power Thursday, according to poweroutage.us, as heat advisories continue to be issued there. A photographer taking aerial shots of wetlands recently spotted about 20 miles of oil sheen along coastal marshes and bayous, a sign that some of the more than 1,400 oil wells that were in the hurri… Click below to read the full story from Forbes
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