Louisiana residents still coming to grips with Laura's blow
By
Mark Puleo, AccuWeather staff writer
Published Aug 31, 2020 4:46 PM EDT
What is it like to live through the damage wrought by a powerful hurricane? The pandemic makes things harder on survivors but so do inequalities of race and income exacerbated by disaster.
It took Hurricane Laura only a matter of hours to inflict an impact on Louisiana residents that may be felt even after the season changes to autumn. Six days after the hurricane ravaged the Louisiana coast, 250,000 residents were still without power Tuesday while the death toll had reached 19 fatalities.
A 19th death was reported on Monday by the Louisiana health department who shared that a 49-year-old man in Rapides Parish died when a tree he was cutting fell on him. The death is the 15th hurricane-related fatality in the state.
On top of those figures, countless others have been displaced by the storm and thousands more will be without water for the immediate future due to the “beating” that water-treatment plants took, according to Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter.
Linda Smoot, who evacuated from Hurricane Laura in a pickup truck with eight others, reacts as they return to see their homes, in Lake Charles, La., in the aftermath of the hurricane, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
“We’re going to be working really, really hard on the power outages, on the water systems, on the housing,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a news conference, according to The Associated Press. “But none of this is going to be easy. It’s not going to happen as quickly as most people would like for sure.”
On Facebook, Hunter added that if any of those displaced residents are looking to return to Lake Charles, they should be prepared to live in the new harsh reality “for many days, probably weeks.”
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As of Wednesday morning, 228,520 were without power in the Bayou State, according to PowerOutage.us. In Texas, another 31,052 were in the dark.
Scott Aaronson, vice president of Edison Electric Institute, said that crews will have to rebuild hundreds of towers and reconnect poles and lines ahead of power restoration efforts, according to FOX Business. Nearly 30,000 workers from across the country and even Canada have volunteered to help ease the power restoration burden.
Of the 19 confirmed deaths between Texas and Louisiana from the former Category 4 hurricane, over half have been blamed on carbon monoxide poisoning following the unsafe operation of generators.
The two most recent carbon monoxide poising fatalities were confirmed on Sunday. The two individuals were an 84-year-old husband and 80-year-old wife in Allen Parish who were running their generator inside. On Friday, another five members from the same household were killed in the same manner according to Lake Charles Fire Chief Shawn Caldwell. The other three carbon monoxide poisoning deaths occurred at a Texas pool hall, according to KNOE.com.
President Donald Trump talks with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, as he arrives to view damage caused by Hurricane Laura, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020, in Orange, Texas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump visited the damaged areas of Texas and Louisiana over the weekend and spent about two hours in Lake Charles while also visiting volunteers for the Cajun Navy. The Cajun Navy is an organization of volunteer groups consisting of members who use their private boats to assist in water-related search-and-rescue efforts and other charitable endeavors often tied to disasters.
Before he arrived, President Trump approved the state’s major disaster declaration request for 23 parishes, thus opening FEMA assistance for impacted individuals and communities.
According to FEMA administrator Tony Robinson, more than 52,500 people had applied for the assistance by the end of the weekend.
During the storm, 19 babies from the Lake Charles Memorial Hospital were brought to different hospitals around the state, according to The AP. According to Dr. Juan Bossano, the babies, some of whom were on ventilators or feeding tubes, managed just fine through the storm.
Leah Upton, director of the NICU unit of Lake Charles Memorial Hospital, told ABC News that the team had just a few hours to move the babies to safer ground before Laura's wrath arrived.
“We had 19 critical babies and we’re not just talking about carrying babies across town -- we’re talking about the ventilator equipment, feeding tubes, breast milk, all the things these babies would need we had to transport,” Upton said. “You have a duty and responsibility to these patients. These babies, we treat them like they’re our own.”
On Sunday, world-renowned chef Jose Andres and his World Central Kitchen team arrived in Lake Charles to prepare and serve nearly 8,000 meals to residents in the most-damaged areas.
Chef Andres created the World Central Kitchen to provide meals and hope to damaged areas in 2010 after the disastrous earthquake in Haiti.
“As our teams across the country mobilized to prepare for Hurricane Laura, the pair drove into Texas to get the kitchen going,” the World Central Kitchen wrote on its website. “We prepared a combination of fresh sandwiches and hot meals to be taken into the locations that sustained the most damage just hours after the storm passed.”
In Houston, another group of chefs created a fundraising initiative called “Htown meals for Hurricane Laura relief” on Facebook. Jessica Timmons of Cherry Block Craft Butcher told Eater Houston that the team’s efforts raised over $14,000, which helped prepare around 2,400 meals.
“For us to be able to provide that support to another community — that’s what hospitality is,” Timmons said.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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News / Hurricane
Louisiana residents still coming to grips with Laura's blow
By Mark Puleo, AccuWeather staff writer
Published Aug 31, 2020 4:46 PM EDT
What is it like to live through the damage wrought by a powerful hurricane? The pandemic makes things harder on survivors but so do inequalities of race and income exacerbated by disaster.
It took Hurricane Laura only a matter of hours to inflict an impact on Louisiana residents that may be felt even after the season changes to autumn. Six days after the hurricane ravaged the Louisiana coast, 250,000 residents were still without power Tuesday while the death toll had reached 19 fatalities.
A 19th death was reported on Monday by the Louisiana health department who shared that a 49-year-old man in Rapides Parish died when a tree he was cutting fell on him. The death is the 15th hurricane-related fatality in the state.
On top of those figures, countless others have been displaced by the storm and thousands more will be without water for the immediate future due to the “beating” that water-treatment plants took, according to Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter.
Linda Smoot, who evacuated from Hurricane Laura in a pickup truck with eight others, reacts as they return to see their homes, in Lake Charles, La., in the aftermath of the hurricane, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
“We’re going to be working really, really hard on the power outages, on the water systems, on the housing,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a news conference, according to The Associated Press. “But none of this is going to be easy. It’s not going to happen as quickly as most people would like for sure.”
On Facebook, Hunter added that if any of those displaced residents are looking to return to Lake Charles, they should be prepared to live in the new harsh reality “for many days, probably weeks.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
As of Wednesday morning, 228,520 were without power in the Bayou State, according to PowerOutage.us. In Texas, another 31,052 were in the dark.
Scott Aaronson, vice president of Edison Electric Institute, said that crews will have to rebuild hundreds of towers and reconnect poles and lines ahead of power restoration efforts, according to FOX Business. Nearly 30,000 workers from across the country and even Canada have volunteered to help ease the power restoration burden.
Of the 19 confirmed deaths between Texas and Louisiana from the former Category 4 hurricane, over half have been blamed on carbon monoxide poisoning following the unsafe operation of generators.
The two most recent carbon monoxide poising fatalities were confirmed on Sunday. The two individuals were an 84-year-old husband and 80-year-old wife in Allen Parish who were running their generator inside. On Friday, another five members from the same household were killed in the same manner according to Lake Charles Fire Chief Shawn Caldwell. The other three carbon monoxide poisoning deaths occurred at a Texas pool hall, according to KNOE.com.
President Donald Trump talks with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, as he arrives to view damage caused by Hurricane Laura, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020, in Orange, Texas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump visited the damaged areas of Texas and Louisiana over the weekend and spent about two hours in Lake Charles while also visiting volunteers for the Cajun Navy. The Cajun Navy is an organization of volunteer groups consisting of members who use their private boats to assist in water-related search-and-rescue efforts and other charitable endeavors often tied to disasters.
Before he arrived, President Trump approved the state’s major disaster declaration request for 23 parishes, thus opening FEMA assistance for impacted individuals and communities.
According to FEMA administrator Tony Robinson, more than 52,500 people had applied for the assistance by the end of the weekend.
During the storm, 19 babies from the Lake Charles Memorial Hospital were brought to different hospitals around the state, according to The AP. According to Dr. Juan Bossano, the babies, some of whom were on ventilators or feeding tubes, managed just fine through the storm.
Leah Upton, director of the NICU unit of Lake Charles Memorial Hospital, told ABC News that the team had just a few hours to move the babies to safer ground before Laura's wrath arrived.
“We had 19 critical babies and we’re not just talking about carrying babies across town -- we’re talking about the ventilator equipment, feeding tubes, breast milk, all the things these babies would need we had to transport,” Upton said. “You have a duty and responsibility to these patients. These babies, we treat them like they’re our own.”
On Sunday, world-renowned chef Jose Andres and his World Central Kitchen team arrived in Lake Charles to prepare and serve nearly 8,000 meals to residents in the most-damaged areas.
Chef Andres created the World Central Kitchen to provide meals and hope to damaged areas in 2010 after the disastrous earthquake in Haiti.
“As our teams across the country mobilized to prepare for Hurricane Laura, the pair drove into Texas to get the kitchen going,” the World Central Kitchen wrote on its website. “We prepared a combination of fresh sandwiches and hot meals to be taken into the locations that sustained the most damage just hours after the storm passed.”
In Houston, another group of chefs created a fundraising initiative called “Htown meals for Hurricane Laura relief” on Facebook. Jessica Timmons of Cherry Block Craft Butcher told Eater Houston that the team’s efforts raised over $14,000, which helped prepare around 2,400 meals.
“For us to be able to provide that support to another community — that’s what hospitality is,” Timmons said.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Report a Typo