Laura has intensified into a Category 4 hurricane, and is heading for landfall on the upper Texas and southwest Louisiana coasts by early Thursday morning. The storm is packing life-threatening storm surge of up to 20 feet and damaging winds that may extend well inland.

Preparations started in Louisiana and Texas Sunday before Tropical Depression Marco's arrival, which made landfall as a tropical storm near the mouth of the Mississippi River Monday.

More than 750,000 people are under evacuation orders between southeastern Texas and western Louisiana, and both states' governors declared disasters ahead of the storm.

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(MORE: Hurricane Laura Intensifying in the Gulf of Mexico)

Shoppers crowded grocery stores and gas stations for supplies donning masks to protect themselves from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Photos show store owners in New Orleans' French Quarter boarding up windows to protect against the storm's expected winds.

A hurricane warning has been issued from San Luis Pass, Texas, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana, including Galveston, parts of the east Houston metro area, Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, Lake Charles, Louisiana, and several additional inland counties and parishes of east Texas and western Louisiana extending north of Interstate 10. Tropical storm warnings are in effect for the rest of the Houston metro area, as well as parts of northeast Texas, northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas.

A storm surge warning is in place from Freeport, Texas, to the mouth of the Mississippi River in southeastern Louisiana, including Galveston Bay and areas inside the Port Arthur, Texas, hurricane flood protection system.

Click through the slideshow above to see how people are preparing for the storm's landfall.