Hurricanes Marco and Laura threatened the Gulf States in late August. Marco weakened to a tropical depression by the time it made landfall on the evening of Monday, Aug. 24; Laura did the opposite. | Photo: Courtesy NASA

On Sunday, Aug. 23, Chris and Wendi Moody watched the weather forecasts as two major storms moved directly toward their home outside of Beaumont, Texas, near the Louisiana border. Less than 48 hours later, they were on the road north with their three daughters, five horses, and two dogs, fleeing Hurricane Laura.

“They were predicting both hurricanes—Marco and Laura—to hit at the same time in Beaumont,” Chris Moody said. “We started preparing on Monday.”

Marco weakened to a tropical depression by the time it made landfall on the evening of Monday, Aug. 24; Laura did the opposite. In the early hours of Thursday, Aug. 27, Hurricane Laura made landfall in Cameron, Louisiana, 70 miles from Beaumont, as a Category 4 storm. It was the strongest hurricane to hit Louisiana since the Last Island hurricane in 1856, with both storms recording maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour