More than half a million people in Texas and Louisiana have been ordered to flee their homes as Hurricane Laura threatened to bring a life-threatening storm surge, extreme winds, and flash flooding. Laura is expected slam into the Gulf Coast late Wednesday and forecasters have projected that it will grow into a Category 4 major hurricane before it makes landfall. The National Hurricane Center warned early Wednesday that Laura has become “a formidable hurricane” with a storm surge that could push 30 miles inland and added: “There are no signs it will stop soon.” Laura has already killed at least 23 people in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, USA Today reports. Hundreds of thousands of people have been told to evacuate their homes, including in the Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston, and Port Arthur. “If you decide to stay, you’re staying on your own,” Port Arthur Mayor Thurman Bartie said.