Louisiana is recovering from the effects of Hurricane Laura, having to dislodge a riverboat casino from the I-10 Bridge in Lake Charles and house nearly 2,000 evacuees in hotels. Matt Doyle has the story.
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Electric companies dispatching thousands of workers to restore power following Hurricane Laura. Kevin Barnhart has the story.
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Central and North Louisiana absorbed an unexpectedly fierce blow from Hurricane Laura. Matt Doyle has the story.
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Now that Hurricane Laura has passed the state is busy surveying damage and sheltering those who lost their homes.
The I-10 Bridge in Lake Charles is currently being inspected after the Isle of Capri riverboat casino barge got loose in the lake and lodged itself under the bridge. DOTD Secretary Shawn Wilson says they’re working to figure out if the collision did any structural damage.
The bridge was already declared structurally deficient by the US Department of Transportation, a designation Louisiana DOTD disputed.
Governor Edwards says 2,100 people are currently being sheltered by the state, 1,900 of them in hotels and motels. Edwards says it crucial that anyone needing housing be kept out of congregate settings…
Those needing shelter are encouraged to text LA Shelter to 898-211.
Disaster SNAP assistance is not yet available but Edwards is encouraging residents in impacted areas to pre-register.
You can pre-register at dcfs.louisiana.gov
Wilson asks people to stay away from the I-10 Bridge until they can confirm the structure is safe.
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Crews are out attempting to restore power throughout the path of Hurricane Laura. Cleco spokesperson Jennifer Cahill says they are receiving additional manpower to help in their statewide response to restore service to customers.
Cut 8 (12) “…425 line mechanics.”
Cahill says crews are seeing widespread damage with broken utility poles, down wires, and structural damage.
Cut 9 (05) “…start making repairs.”
Entergy Vice President of Customer Service Melonie Stewart says most of the customers that are out are primarily in Calcasieu and Ouachita Parishes. Stewart says when the winds died down, assessment teams took to the skies to help formulate a plan on the best response.
Cut 10 (08) “…understand the damage..”
Entergy has 6200 workers in the state. Stewart says some customers may be without power for weeks as restoration has to be prioritized to best benefit the health and safety of communities.
Cut 11 (09) “…to energize first..”
As of 5PM Thursday, SWEPCO says 128,000 customers are without power, which accounts for 94% of their customers.
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Hurricane Laura cut a path of destruction through Louisiana that stretches from Lake Charles to Ruston.
In Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Chief of Staff Tommy Carnline says they had no idea they’d be hit so hard so far inland.
A curfew is in effect in Rapides after 9 PM today.
Carnline says Gas pumps are down due to a lack of power and wifi. All traffic lights were knocked out, and over 40,000 lost power. Normally they’d be rushing deputies to south Louisiana, but…
In some good news, there were no severe injuries reported in the parish.
In Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker says they’ve suffered a worse blow than they did during last year’s tornado.
In Ruston, winds over 70 miles per hour were clocked.
Walker says 95 percent of the city lost power, compared to just 70 percent of the city during the tornado.
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Hurricane Laura knocks off 67 water systems throughout Louisiana. Chief Engineer at the Department of Health Amanda Ames says that is a tremendous amount of systems that can’t produce water right now because of loss of electrical power.
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Ames says over 220,000 residents are impacted by the outages.
Cut 17 (11) “…people without water.”
Ames says some of the systems could be functional again as soon as power is restored, but other factors may result in longer service restoration times.
Ames says depending on how long water service may be out, bottled water may be delivered to an area.