Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter tells Lake Charles residents that they need to understand it will be weeks before the area returns to any sense of normalcy. Hunter says power and water are out, and there’s very little in the way of vital services.
Because of the lack of Water Memorial Hospital in Lake Charles is evacuating patients.
On campus classes at McNeese State University in Lake Charles will not be available for weeks. McNeese spokesperson Candace Townsend says rooves have been peeled back and the school had a newly installed scoreboard at the football stadium that was torn up, but they’re committed to finishing the fall semester.
Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson reportedly has COVID-19.
Governor John Bel Edwards is surveying the damage in central and north Louisiana today. Jackson Parish Sheriff Andy Brown says he’s never seen a storm impact the entire parish like this one
200,000 people statewide are believed to be without water right now after 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.
Cut 16 (08) “…a boil advisory..”
Ames says depending on how long water service may be out, bottled water may be delivered to an area.
About 102,000 SWEPCO customers are still without power following Hurricane Laura, down from the peak outage of 136,000.