2 months after hurricanes, Louisiana residents still hurting

Hurricane Laura roared ashore in southwestern Louisiana on Aug 27 as a Category 4 storm just south of Lake Charles. Delta also ripped off the tarps that had gone up on roofs after Laura.According to Louisiana government figures, nearly 47,000 homes were damaged by Hurricane Laura, with about 16,000 of those in need of major repairs.

As southwest Louisiana recovers from the back-to-back hurricanes that hammered the region this year, signs of progress compete with lingering evidence of mass destruction. The fallen trees that carpeted neighborhoods have mostly been chopped up and hauled away, but the roofs they devoured are still covered in blue tarps. Piles of debris still line the roads.

Brandy Monticello is thankful for the progress. She and her wife no longer have to go to the Civic Center just to get basics like drinking water or ice. But during her daily 45-minute commute from the trailer the family is living into the hospital where she works as a respiratory therapist, she sees how much still needs to be done. Every day, another house demolished. So many tarps on those still standing. "It's almost overwhelming by the time you get home,'' she said. "You do have to cry every once in a while just to let some emotions out." In a year dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, a deeply divisive election, and a national reckoning on race, some worry that the hurricanes and their destruction have not gotten the kind of attention that normally leads to an outpouring of support.

Aid efforts after Laura and Delta have only garnered about 25 percent of the volunteers and donations as other storms affecting the region, such as 2005′s Hurricane Rita, said Denise Durel, president and CEO of the United Way of Southwest Louisiana. Hurricane Laura roared ashore in southwestern Louisiana on Aug 27 as a Category 4 storm just south of Lake Charles. On October 9, recovering residents watched as Category 2 Delta swept in just a few miles away. What didn't get scoured by Laura's winds was swamped by Delta's rains. Delta also ripped off the tarps that had gone up on roofs after Laura.

According to Louisiana government figures, nearly 47,000 homes were damaged by Hurricane Laura, with about 16,000 of those in need of major repairs. The bulk of those homes are in Calcasieu Parish, home to the state's fifth-largest city, Lake Charles, with 80,000 residents. In the less-populated Cameron Parish on the Gulf of Mexico, many homes were simply erased by Laura. Initial estimates from disaster modeling firm Karen Clark & Co. put the combined insured US losses from Laura and Delta at nearly USD 10 billion.

"The first one was a big blow. The second one just was an insult," Monticello said. In the early weeks after the first hurricane, she, her spouse, and three sons lived all together in the living room. They realized just how damaged the house was when Delta arrived and water started streaming in.