Trump visits Louisiana neighbourhood hit by Laura

US President Donald Trump on Saturday got a firsthand look at damage from Hurricane Laura on a post-Republican National Convention trip that allowed him to use trappings of his office to try to project empathy and leership.

His stops, first in Louisiana and later in Texas, came two days after Category 4 storm slammed Gulf Coast, leaving at least 16 de and wreaking havoc with severe winds and flooding.

While storm surge has receded and cleanup effort has begun, hundreds of thousands remain without power or water, and y could for weeks or months as hot summer stretches on.

During slightly more than two hours he spent in Lake Charles in Louisiana, Trump met officials and relief workers but not any of residents whose homes h been ripped apart in storm.

He did, however, get a good look at extensive damage and debris strewn across city of 80,000 people.

Accompanied by Governor John Bel Edwards and acting Homeland Security Secretary Ch Wolf, he me his way down a street blocked by felled trees and where houses were battered by storm, one with its entire roof torn off.