Laura is now a tropical storm, bringing sustained winds of up to 65 mph to the area just south of Louisiana’s border with Arkansas. But forecasters warn that the storm remains a dire threat, due to flood-inducing rainfall and other perils.

The former hurricane is now moving north at 15 mph – maintaining the same motion it has taken for much of Thursday, since making landfall in southwest Louisiana with intense winds and a large storm surge.

About 600,000 electrical customers are currently out of power, Gov. John Bel Edwards said in an update at 2 p.m. ET.

Laura was so huge, Edwards said, that nearly his entire state has experienced tropical-storm conditions in the past 24 hours. As of early Thursday afternoon, Laura’s tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 105 miles from its center, the National Hurricane Center says.

Even as the storm passes through northern Louisiana, a storm surge warning remains in effect at the coast from Sabine Pass, Texas, along the border to Port Fourchon, La., south of New Orleans.

“On the forecast track, the center of Laura is forecast to move over Arkansas tonight, the mid-Mississippi Valley on Friday, and the mid-Atlantic states on Saturday,” the NHC says.