Lake Charles is devastated and Mayor Nic Hunter warns it could be weeks before some semblance of normality returns. Gator 99.5 Lake Charles radio host Buddy Russ is there. He says at this point he’d rather have the catastrophic flood damage from Rita over what they’re seeing now.
Cut 6 (07) “the ground”
Russ says Laura has changed the face of Lake Charles.
The McNeese University campus in Lake Charles is expected to be closed for several weeks to fix up damage. Streets are still needing to be cleared to get a better idea of the severity. McNeese spokesperson Candace Townsend says the school has a newly installed scoreboard at the football stadium that was torn up.
Cut 4 (11)“ …us an assessment.”
Governor Edwards is expected to fly over storm damage this afternoon in Central and North Louisiana. Ruston Mayor Ronnie Walker says they’ve suffered a worse blow than they did during last year’s tornado.
In Ruston, winds were clocked at over 70 miles per hour.
A heat advisory is in effect today La Salle Parish north into Arkansas and West into Texas, and many won’t have AC. SWEPCO estimates most customers in the Shreveport-Bossier area should have power restored by 10 PM Wednesday and Central Louisiana customers by 10 PM Thursday.
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.