TORONTO -- The National Hurricane Center says Laura remains a hurricane, sustaining top winds of 120 km/h more than 270 kilometres after landfall.

The powerful storm struck land near Cameron on the southwest Louisiana coast at about 1 a.m. Thursday. Nine hours later, it was about 16 kilometres north of Natchitoches, Louisiana, and had not yet weakened into a tropical storm.

The hurricane is expected to keep drenching Louisiana and then Arkansas as a tropical storm, causing widespread flash flooding and damage from winds. It was moving north near 26 km/h.

The storm is hitting during the state’s first week back at public school since March. Many schools in the southern half of Arkansas opted to cancel classes Thursday or dismiss early because of the storm.

The first reported death, of a girl whose house was hit by a tree, was in Leesburg, more than 160 kilometres inland from the coast.

Reports emerging in the wake of Hurricane Laura show less damage than what was feared.

The eye passed directly over Lake Charles, where drone video shows roofs ripped off, exposing living rooms to the elements; trees downed and water overflowing the banks of coastal properties.
 

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