Washington, Aug 27 (TIWN) The "catastrophic" Category 4 hurricane, Laura struck the coast of Louisiana on Thursday, with extreme winds causing flash floods in the US state, the country's National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

"There will be parts of Lake Charles underwater that no living human being has ever seen before," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told WWL Radio. "We are marshaling all of our people and assets to go in ... and start a very robust search and rescue effort." Laura tied with a hurricane from more than 160 years ago for the strongest storm to hit Louisiana. The 1856 hurricane also had winds of 150 mph when it made landfall in Louisiana, CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said.