Chicago Tribune (Sunday)

Delta ill winds are latest blow to La.

Residents reeling from earlier storm face painful routine

- By Rebecca Santana, Stacey Plaisance and Alanna Durkin Richer

LAKE CHARLES, La. — The day after Hurricane Delta blew through besieged southern Louisiana, residents started the routine again: dodging overturned cars, trudging throughkne­e-deepwater to flooded homes with ruined floors and no power, and pledging to rebuild after the storm.

Delta made landfall Friday evening near the coastal Louisiana town of Creole with top winds of 100 mph. It then moved over Lake Charles, a city whereHurri­cane Laura damaged nearly every home and building in late August. No deaths had been reported as of Saturday afternoon, but officials said people were not out of danger.

While Delta was a weaker storm than Category 4 Laura, it brought significan­tly more flooding, Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said. He estimated that hundreds of already battered homes across the city took on water. The recovery from the double impact will be long, the mayor said.

“Add Laura and Delta together and it’s just absolutely unpreceden­ted and catastroph­ic,” Hunter said. “We are very concerned that with everything going in the country right now that this incident may not be on the radar nationally like it should be.”

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said no fatalities had been reported as of Saturday, but a hurricane’s wake can be treacherou­s. Only seven of the 32 deaths in Louisiana and Texas attributed to Laura came the day that hurricane struck. A leading cause of the others was carbon monoxide poisoning from generators used in buildings without electricit­y.

Delta, the 25th named storm of an unpreceden­ted Atlantic hurricane season, was the 10th named storm to hit the mainland U.S. this year, breaking a record set in 1916, Colorado State University researcher Phil Klotzbach said.

It rapidly weakened over land and slowed into a tropical depression Saturday morning. Forecaster­s

warned that heavy rain, storm surges and flash floods continued to pose dangers in areas fromTexas to Mississipp­i. Large swells and rip currents closed beaches down to theMexican border.

Remnants of the storm also could spawntorna­does in theTenness­eeValley into Sunday, and flash floods could hit the southern Appalachia­ns, the National Weather Service said.

Louisiana avoided one feared scenario: that the winds would pick up the debris left by Laura — piles of soggy insulation, moldy mattresses, tree limbs and twisted metal siding — and turn it into projectile­s. In at least some neighborho­ods, the small mountains stood on curbs more or less intact.

Delta inflicted most of its damage with rain instead wind. It dumped more than 15 inches of rain on Lake Charles over two days and more than 10 inches on Baton Rouge. Southwest parishes such as Cameron, Jefferson Davis, Vermilion and Acadia that sustained heavy blows from Laura took the hardest hit.

The governor cautioned that it would be difficult to distinguis­h the damage Delta caused fromwhatwa­s leftover from the August hurricane. More than 9,400 peoplewere being sheltered by the state Saturday, but only 935 were Delta evacuees, Edwards said. The others were still displaced by Laura.

Edwards said 3,000Louisia­na National Guard soldiers were mobilized to

clear roads and to distribute meals and tarps, and 10,000 utility workers were working to get power restored to nearly 600,000 customers.

With the water kneedeep along Legion Street in Lake Charles, resident Patrick King had to wade through the water Saturday to get to his home after he returned fromspendi­ng the night in Beaumont, Texas.

“I was hoping and praying that it didn’t get into the house, but it did. It rose up close to the furniture,” King said.

“It’s totally frustratin­g and in fact, it makes you want to give up, but you have tokeeponpu­shing,” he said. “Me and my wife, we are praying people, so we just believe that God let things happen for a reason.”

The damage also stretched inland, with trees shorn of leaves and falling onto streets in Louisiana’s capital of Baton Rouge. The storm blew down two homes under constructi­on in Galveston, Texas, and toppled the steeple of a church in Jennings, Louisiana.

Calcasieu Sheriff Tony Mancuso told KPLC-TV that the vehicles overturned onthe interstate should give pause to anyone thinking about rushing back to the disaster area.

“Risingwate­r with all the rain is the biggest problem,” Mancuso said. “It’s still dangerous out there, and we’re just going to have to start over froma fewweeks ago.”

The U.S. Gulf Coast is no stranger to hurricanes, and its people are resilient, Lake Charles resident Katie Prejean McGrady said. But the double punch of the backto-back storms — on top of the pandemic — has left many in the community reeling, she said.

“I’m taxed out. And I think that’s most people in town,” she said. “There’s a mental exhaustion that sets in and then there’s a fear of D`oes anybody outside this region care?’ ” she said. “The reality is our town won’t be the same for a year, if not longer.”

McGrady and her family had just returned to their homefor the first time since evacuating ahead of Hurricane Laura when she was nine months pregnant. They arrived back in Lake Charles two weeks ago, got a new roof on Monday and had to evacuate again Thursday.

“My husbandhad­n’t even unpacked his suitcase,” McGrady said. “I had just put awaymy daughter’s toys.”

 ?? SCOTT CLAUSE/THE DAILY ADVERTISER ?? Michael McDonald clears trees Saturday after Hurricane Delta passed through the area in Jennings, Louisiana.
SCOTT CLAUSE/THE DAILY ADVERTISER Michael McDonald clears trees Saturday after Hurricane Delta passed through the area in Jennings, Louisiana.

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