The coronavirus presents new challenges for sheltering those in Ouachita Parish who have lost their homes from the Easter tornado outbreak. Kevin Barnhart has the story.
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6,900 Ouachita Parish residents and thousands of other customers were still without power as of 10 AM this morning due to Sunday’s devastating tornadoes. Matt Doyle has more.
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Families and businesses are picking up the pieces following a tornado outbreak on Easter. President of the Ouachita Parish Police Jury Shane Smiley says the devastation is widespread.
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The coronavirus has presented challenges in how people are sheltered following the storm and Smiley says they are taking a new approach to sheltering in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
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Smiley says two public housing communities took a significant hit, including one about a mile from the airport.
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A suspected tornado did an estimated 25-30 million in damages at the Monroe Regional Airport. Congressman Ralph Abraham says he saw debris littered runways, destroyed buildings, and the remains of small jets poking out from under a collapsed hangar.
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Abraham says they’ve reached out to both state and federal officials to begin the process of getting aid for the airport and other businesses that have been destroyed.
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The airport is closed today and Abraham says it could be some time before it gets back up and running.
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Thousands in north Louisiana are without power a day after powerful storms ripped through the region. Entergy Louisiana spokesperson David Freese says at the Sunday afternoon peak 26,500 customers were without power, but that number has come down over the last 24 hours.
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Entergy reports 200 poles, 450 spans of wire, and 50 transformers will either need to be repaired or replaced. Freese says they’re pulling in emergency workers to get it done.
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Freese warns some customers may not have their power back on until later this week due to the extensive amount of damage to infrastructure.
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SWEPCO is reporting eight-thousand of its Louisiana customers are without power as well. It may take until Wednesday afternoon before most of their Shreveport customers have electricity.
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The state health department reported 44 more COVID-19 deaths today, bringing the total number of deaths to 884. There are over 21-thousand positive cases. Louisiana does not report on how many people have recovered from the coronavirus. Governor Edwards says capturing that information is difficult
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Louisiana residents who are receiving unemployment should see a substantial increase in assistance starting today. Edwards says previously unemployed workers were only eligible for up to 247-dollars from the state
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Edwards says gig workers and 10-99 employees can begin receiving 600-dollars in unemployment assistance starting today. He encourages all Louisiana residents who have lost work or hours to file for unemployment at Louisiana-works-dot-net
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