Today state officials discussed Louisiana’s response plan should another storm hit us, while our neighbors are recovering. Michelle Southern reports…

Cut 2 (30) “I’m Michelle Southern”

The National Hurricane Center calls Hurricane Irma potentially catastrophic as the category 5 storm barrels towards the Leeward Islands. Irma has winds up to 185 miles per hour, and storm surge is expected to be a big problem in the Caribbean. The system could take aim at the US by the end of the weekend.

CEOWORLD magazine ranks UL-Lafayette’s petroleum engineering department the seventh best in the nation and thirteenth in the world. Department Head Dr. Fathi Boukadi says this is the result of years of hard work by students, faculty, and staff. He says it’s an honor for the program to be ranked among the best in the world, and he hopes to continue to improve the department.

Cut 12 (09) “our students”

Lafayette Sheriff Mark Garber has his daughter back home after she and her babysitter went missing in a canoe overnight. John Mowell with the sheriff’s office says local authorities and volunteers searched all night for 21-year-old Juliana Brooks and 7-year-old Cora Garber.

Cut 4 (11) “precautionary measure”

The girls were found near an oil well in the Lake Martin area.