It's a side effect of a powerful category 4 hurricane, power outages.

Hurricane Laura slammed into the Louisiana coastline last night around midnight with winds in excess of 150 mph in some locations. Along with these high winds, the storm surge was some nine feet and higher in some locations. Thanks to a little jog to the east, Laura's path is taking her on the Louisiana side of the Texas Louisiana border. However, that doesn't mean East Texas escaped the wrath of Hurricane Laura.

With hurricane and tropical storm force winds reaching hundreds of miles out from the center of the storm, many East Texans have lost power. With high winds and as many pine tree and tall trees around there several of them are going to come crashing down on power lines and knocking out power to East Texas residents.

As of 9 a.m., the Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative is reporting the following number of outages:

County            Outages     Meters Served
Jasper                1,544            1,839
Nacogdoches     1,741          10,154
Newton               1,804            1,879
Panola                   548            1,273
Rusk                          0                   9
Sabine                8,206            9,092
San Augustine    3,435            5,696
Shelby                4,876          11,367
TOTAL              22,154          41,309

Electric crews have been dispatched and are surveying the damage so that restoration of power can begin.

If you're in an area affected by Hurricane Laura with down power lines, please, treat all power lines as live lines and never touch them or drive over them. Instead, find an alternate route and call your local electric provider or law enforcement office.

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