Ripping tarps from damaged roofs and scattering massive piles of storm debris in the wind and water, Hurricane Delta inflicted a new round of destruction in Louisiana communities still reeling along a path Hurricane Laura carved just six weeks earlier.
Delta hit as a Category 2 hurricane, with top winds of 100 mph (155 kph) before rapidly weakening over land.
By Saturday morning, it dwindled to a tropical storm with 45 mph (75 kph) winds, but storm surge and flash floods continued to pose dangers across much of southwestern Louisiana and parts of neighboring Texas. Mississippi also got its fair share of rain overnight.
Delta made landfall Friday evening near the coastal town of Creole - only 15 miles (24 kilometers) or so from where Laura struck land in August, killing 27 people in Louisiana.
It then moved directly over Lake Charles, a waterfront city about 30 miles (50 kilometers) inland where the earlier hurricane damaged nearly every home and building, and where moldy mattresses, sawed-up trees and other debris still lined the streets.
Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter spoke with The Associated Press as he rode out Delta's arrival downtown.
He said tarps were flying off homes across the city, and piles of wreckage were being blown around, some of it floating in the surge of ocean water.
"I'm in a building right now with a tarp on it and just the sound of the tarp flapping on the building sounds like someone pounding with a sledgehammer on top of the building," Hunter said.
