It’s been one week since Hurricane Laura made landfall in Cameron Parish and cut a line of devastation from Lake Charles to Ruston. Governor John Bel Edwards says no storm has ever maintained so much strength across so much of the state but despite the damage, he’s optimistic about the recovery.
The Public Service Commission reports 211-thousand customers are still without power, down from the post-Laura peak of 615,000.
A lot of the attention on hurricane recovery in southwest Louisiana has been on Calcasieu and Cameron Parishes, but Beauregard Parish also took a significant hit from the Category Four storm. Sheriff Mark Herford says there are hundreds of linemen working on getting the electricity and they deserve a pat on the back
Hurricane Laura is estimated to be an eight-to-nine billion-dollar insured loss event, the second-highest in the state’s history only behind Katrina. Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says anyone who took photos of their property before the storm should also take photos of the damage caused by the storm for comparison by an adjuster.
Donelon says with the mass amount of claims coming to insurers, policyholders need to file as soon as possible.
The state surpasses a total of 150-thousand COVID-19 cases today, up by 884. Total fatalities… 4858, up 17. Hospitalizations drop to 851, the lowest since July 2, down 22. Ventilator use is a 128, down by 4.