The LSU Alexandria campus was hit by a tornado yesterday, one of many Rapides Parish locations that took storm damage. Around 930 last night the tornado struck just 200 yards away from where the students who remained on campus were living in a dorm. No lives were lost at the campus and no major structural damage was observed.
Elsewhere in Rapides one person wasn’t so lucky. 67-year-old Becky Roberts was killed in Lecompte. National Weather Service forecaster Seth Warthen says the potential tornadoes were part of a long track supercell that appeared to have traveled a long distance.
The storm system also brought heavy rains in DeSoto Parish. Sherriff’s spokesperson Mark Pierce says a flash flood killed a man in Mansfield when it produced a strong current in a drainage ditch.
The national unemployment rate rose to 20 percent as mass furloughs and layoffs continue due to the coronavirus shutdown. Economist Loren Scott estimates 349-thousand unemployment claims for the month of April in Louisiana, because of the economic shutdown…
The Tax Foundation estimates about 16-percent of the workforce has applied or is receiving unemployment benefits in Louisiana.
Car dealerships are seeing slow sales and not as much work for their service departments as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association President Will Green says they are certainly impacted by the stay at home order…
Green says these days car buyers can test drive a vehicle and not even go to the dealer.