Hurricane Laura is expected to strengthen into a Category 4 storm and make landfall tonight or Thursday morning near the border of Louisiana and Texas.
From the National Hurricane Center’s Twitter:
Unsurvivable storm surge with large and destructive waves will cause catastrophic damage from Sea Rim State Park, Texas, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana, including Calcasieu and Sabine Lakes. This surge could penetrate up to 30 miles inland from the immediate coastline.
The National Hurricane Center expects the storm to move through Louisiana into Arkansas by Thursday night, before veering east toward West Virginia and Virginia by early Saturday.
With so much of US carbon black capacity located on the Gulf Coast, the storm will hit the industry hard. Heavily affected with possible flooding:
Birla Carbon USA – Franklin, LA
Cabot – Franklin, LA
Orion Engineered Carbons – Ivanhoe, LA
Orion Engineered Carbons – Orange, TX
Together these four plants represent about 30% of US carbon black capacity
Moderately to heavily affected (depending on storm path and severity):
Cabot – Ville Platte, LA
Tokai Carbon CB – Addis, LA
Together these two plants represent about 20% of US carbon black capacity