Families sift through destruction as hurricane’s death toll hits 18

HACKBERRY, La. — Bradley Beard calls Hurricane Laura his third strike.

In 2005, Hurricane Rita pushed a foot of floodwaters into his white, wooden home in Hackberry, La., a tiny Cameron Parish community 15 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.

Next came Hurricane Ike in 2008, which pushed water up to the floor of the long mobile home where Mr. Beard’s daughter and two granddaughters live on the same property.

Laura outstripped them both. It tore Mr. Beard’s house entirely off its foundation and dropped it a few feet away. The trailer where his daughter, Nicole, lives with her two daughters was torn apart, the walls demolished to reveal a mix of clothes, belongings and wooden planks. About the only things still in their place were a canoe and a garbage can, tied to a steel grill buried in the ground.

A retired welder who worked at many of the refineries that dot the Louisiana coast, the 62- year- old Mr. Beard climbed through the debris, laboring with two artificial knees. After several minutes working to turn off the property’s water lines, he sat on a fallen log and wiped the sweat from his brow.

“I got no other place,” Mr. Beard said. “This is all I got.”

Across Cameron Parish, the coastal parish where Hurricane Laura crashed ashore early Thursday, residents dug through what was left of their belongings, covered now- stripped roofs with tarps, and took stock of the damage.

The Category 4 storm packed 150 mph winds and a storm surge that Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said was as high as 15 feet.

Louisiana officials reported two additional deaths Sunday, bringing the total number of deaths attributed to the storm in Louisiana and Texas to 18; more than half of those were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning.

As of Sunday morning, roughly 460,000 customers were still without power, according to the Edison Electric Institute, the association of investor- owned electric companies in the U. S.

President Donald Trump visited Louisiana and Texas on Saturday to show his support and assess the damage.

Gerald Herbert/ Associated Press Linda Smoot, who evacuated from Hurricane Laura in a pickup truck with eight others, reacts as they return Sunday to see the damaged home of her niece for the first time, in Lake Charles, La., in the aftermath of the hurricane.