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.
Cut 1 (28) “I’m Matt Doyle”

The state health department reports 67 Hurricane Laura related water system outages, which is impacting over 220-thousand residents. L-D-H Chief Engineer Amanda Ames…
cut 17 (11) “…people without any water”

Hundreds of thousands of people spent last night without any power. Cleco spokesperson Jennifer Cahill says they are receiving additional manpower to restore service to their customers.
Cut 8 (12) “…425 line mechanics.”
Cleco reports about 100-thousand of their customers are without power. Entergy has 240-thousand customers in the dark and SWEPCO is reporting about 128-thousand outages.

Hurricane Laura cut a path of destruction from Lake Charles through north Louisiana. In Rapides Parish, the Sheriff’s Chief of Staff Tommy Carnline says they had no idea they’d be hit so hard so far inland….
cut 12 (12) “…the top”
A curfew is in place for Rapides Parish from 9 PM to 6AM.

Hurricane Laura has passed and the long recovery process begins. The I-10 Bridge in Lake Charles is closed after the Isle of Capri riverboat casino barge got loose in the lake and lodged itself under the bridge. The casino has been pulled away, but state Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson says they are looking to see if the collision did any structural damage.
Cut 4 (11)“…there”
Not too far away from the bridge, a fire at the Biolab chemical plant in Westlake continues to smolder. A precautionary shelter in place continues within one mile of the plant.

Hurricane Laura also knocked 67 water systems offline in Louisiana. Chief Engineer at the state health department Amanda Ames says many of these systems have no power
Cut 16 (08) “…a boil advisory..”
Ames says over 220-thousand residents are impacted by the outages.

Electric companies are dispatching thousands of workers to restore power following Hurricane Laura. Kevin Barnhart has the story.
Cut 2 (31) “…I’m Kevin Barnhart”

Hurricane Laura is responsible for six deaths in Louisiana. Four of the victims died when a tree came crashing into their home. A 24-year-Calcasieu Parish man also died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator inside his home. Another death in Calcasieu has been classified as a drowning.

Laura is a tropical depression near Memphis this morning, but it left a mess in Louisiana. Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter says the Capitol One Tower looks like swiss cheese as several windows are blown out of the 22-story building. The Lake Charles I-10 bridge is closed after Laura’s strong winds dislodged a casino riverboat and the floating gambling hall slammed into the bridge…
cut 7 (03) “…bridge”
That’s Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson. In Rapides Parish, numerous trees are down and power is out in most of the parish. Tommy Carnline with the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s office…
cut 13 (09) “…here”
And in Ruston, Mayor Ronny Walker says they suffered a worse blow than last year’s deadly tornado…
cut 14 (08) “….town”
Laura is responsible for at least six deaths.

Getting the power back on is an important part of the recovery process. Entergy Vice President of Customer Service Melonie Stewart says when the winds died down, assessment teams took to the skies to help formulate a plan…
cut 10 (08) “….understand the damage”
Entergy has 62-hundred workers mobilized, but they report 238-thousand customers are without power this morning.

Getting water turned back on is another issue. The state health department says Hurricane Laura has knocked 67 water systems offline. L-D-H’s Chief Engineer Amanda 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.
Cut 18 (07) “…of the damage.”
Ames says depending on how long water service may be out, bottled water may be delivered to an area.

Governor Edwards says worst-case projections for Hurricane Laura did not come to pass, but the state still faces a long recovery…
cut 2 (30) “I’m Matt Doyle”

Edwards says four people have died in Louisiana as a result of Laura. In each case, it was a tree that fell on a home, including in Leesville where a 14-year-old was killed. Vernon Parish Sheriff Sam Craft says they have numerous trees down…
cut 7 (10) “…limited”

Residents in Westlake, Moss Bluff, and Sulphur have been told to shelter in place because of a chemical fire that contains chlorine from the Biolab Plant. State Trooper Derek Senegal says residents need to stay indoors with doors closed and the A-C off…
cut 13 (09) “…as a precaution”
BioLab is a chemical refinery plant in Westlake close to I-10. They make cleaning products and disinfectants

Congressman Ralph Abraham has been surveying the damage. He started his day in Lake Charles and then began making his way to the north and he’s amazed by the amount of structural damage he’s seen…
cut 11 (16) “…lot of damage”
Senator Bill Cassidy says he’s spoken with President Trump about Laura and the first president could visit the damaged areas in the near future.

Hurricane Laura’s fierce winds have left a trail of catastrophic damage. Jeff Palermo has the story…
cut 1 (33) “…I’m Jeff Palermo”

There have been two fatalities reported as a result of Laura, a 14-year-old girl from Leesville and a 68-year man from Iota in Acadia Parish died when trees fell on their homes. There’s also a large chemical fire at BioLab near Lake Charles and residents in the area who did not evacuate have been told to shelter in place and to turn off their A-C units.

Congressman Ralph Abraham is out surveying areas of the state that were severely impacted by Hurricane Laura overnight. Abraham says he started at daybreak in his vehicle at Lake Charles then drove north to Deridder and on to Alexandria.
Cut 10 (10) “…left untouched.”
Abraham says power lines and trees are down and debris is everywhere. He also praises first responders who are risking their lives to come to the aid of others.

The Louisiana National Guard has activated more than three-thousand Guardsmen to assist in the recovery operations. Sergeant Denis Ricou…
cut 25 (12) “….efforts”
Guardsmen have also strategically placed 921-thousand liters of water and 528-thousand M-R-Es for distribution and the soldiers will spend the day helping to clear debris from the roadways.

Hurricane Laura made landfall this morning as a Category Four storm, maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour, at 1 AM in Cameron. Lake Charles took a direct hit as they had sustained winds of at least 100 miles per hour. Calcasieu Police Jury President Tony Guillory spoke with us as he surveyed the damage…
Cut 3 (11) “…major one”
Two fatalities have been reported in southwest Louisiana. A 14-year-old girl in Leesville and a 68-year-old man who lived near Iota in Acadia Parish. Both victims died when a tree came crashing through their home.

Laura is still a hurricane at this hour and is 55 miles southeast of Shreveport. Desoto Parish Sheriff Jason Richardson says hurricane-force winds are rare in north Louisiana…
cut 11 (05) “…here”

Governor John Bel Edwards told CNN this morning that we got a break on the storm surge and it was half of what was forecasted, which was as high as 20 feet. But we are seeing images of a fire at a Westlake Chemical Plant in Lake Charles. State Police is reportedly responding as large plumes of smoke are rolling across I-10.

When it comes to the coronavirus, Louisiana will remain in Phase Two until September 11th. Brooke Thorington has more…
Cut 2 (30) “…I’m Brooke Thorington”

Louisiana is reporting its first fatality from Hurricane Laura, a 14-year-old girl in Leesville was killed when a tree fell on her. Vernon Parish Sheriff Sam Craft says hundreds of trees are down in his parish, so it took a while before his deputies could get to the scene…
cut 6 (11) “…residence”
Craft says there’s no power in Vernon Parish and the recovery will take weeks.

The eye of the storm went over Lake Charles during the overnight hours. Calcasieu Parish Police Jury President Tony Guillory says he remembers Hurricane Rita in 2005, but the damage from this storm is worse…
cut 5 (05) “…structural damage”
But Governor Edwards has told CNN the 20-foot storm surge that was anticipated did not materialize. He says it was about half of that.

As soon as it’s safe to do so, deputies with the state fire marshal’s office will perform search and rescue missions in the hard-hit areas of Hurricane Laura. State Fire Marshal Browning says they’ve done several Urban Search and Rescue missions in other states, those states are returning the favor…
cut 15 (10) “…shelter”

Governor Edwards has extended the Phase two coronavirus restrictions for another two weeks until September 11th. Edwards says the White House still has Louisiana in the red zone for new cases, and Dr. Deborah Birx, who is with the White House Coronavirus Task Force, noted Louisiana still has more than 100 cases per 100,000 residents.
Cut 9 (06) “…percent.”
The Governor says the next two week period includes Labor Day and past holidays have resulted in a surge in new cases.