Gov. Edwards on Laura: `Long road' to rebuild southwest Louisiana
BATON ROUGE, La. — Power crews were working to restore electricity across storm-devastated Louisiana, road crews were clearing debris and thousands of tarps were being distributed to patch over wrecked roofs. But Gov. John Bel Edwards cautioned his state's residents Wednesday to be realistic about “the long road ahead of us” to recover from Hurricane Laura.
“There's been an awful lot of progress made in terms of the resources being brought to bear,” the governor said at a news conference. But he added: “There's still a very, very long way to go, however.”
The hurricane was blamed Wednesday for two more deaths in Louisiana, increasing the storm's U.S. death toll to 21.
More than 230,000 utility customers in Louisiana, about 11% of customers, remained without power Wednesday, six days after Laura ravaged the state, according to the Louisiana Public Service Commission. That included nearly every customer in Cameron, Cal ca si eu and Beauregard parishes.
In addition to power outages, the state Health Department said more than 175,000 people faced water outages, while hundreds of thousands more had to boil their water to make it safe for use.
Edwards urged people, particularly in hardest-hit southwestern Louisiana, to follow the guidance of their local authorities on when it's safe to return home and stay there, with estimates that places like Cameron Parish could wait weeks before splintered transmission lines could be rebuilt.
That means there could be no operating grocery stores, gas stations or pharmacies for people wanting to go back to their communities.
“We do hope and expect that more people over time will be able to return home ... but practically speaking, it's just not going to be possible until basic services are restored,” the governor said.
Laura roared a shore Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane just south of Lake Charles near Cameron, Louisiana, packing 150 mph (240 km/h) winds and a storm surge as high as 15 feet (4.5 meters) in some areas. State officials have called it the most powerful storm ever to hit Louisiana.