This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. JUHASZ: And while Thorne and his family are staying outside of Lake Charles while repairs are made, he says they'll keep coming back every day until they can return for good.įor NPR News, I'm Aubri Juhasz in Lake Charles, La.Ĭopyright © 2020 NPR. They're planning on staying, doing as much work as they can and just trying to get everybody back on their feet as fast as possible, so. While elected officials are telling residents to stay away for now, Thorne says it's hard to do that.ĪUSTIN THORNE: They're saying look and leave, but I know a lot of folks that are hooking up a little window unit with a generator. He was prepared to come back to homes completely flooded out. The massive storm surge was nowhere near as bad as predicted. JUHASZ: Austin Thorne, Abby's brother-in-law, says he was expecting the damage to be worse. PIATT: We're trying to move everything before the ceilings cave in because it's looking like it won't last very long.
Inside the house, there's more work to be done. They're on the roof cutting the branches of a big oak tree. JUHASZ: There's a ton of people at the Piatt house helping to clean up. There are tree branches everywhere, including on their house.ĪBBY PIATT: Mom said, I always wanted a skylight in my kitchen, but not like this. It was human hair from this corner all the way to the other corner.įarther down the road, Abby Piatt and her mom, Susan, are surveying the damage in their neighborhood. He's mostly mourning the loss of some expensive merchandise - wigs. JUHASZ: Manea's family owns three businesses in Lake Charles.
I don't know what are we going to do about it. I'm trying to pay these people to at least cover it up with the wood.
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Twenty-year-old Abdullah Manea is trying to figure out how to cover it back up.ĪBDULLAH MANEA: And I don't know. The front of the building is completely detached. Others have been torn apart, like Hair Saga Beauty Supply. JUHASZ: In downtown Lake Charles, a broadcast tower lies crumpled like a house of cards. Residents are anxious to check on their property, their pets or on friends and family that chose to stay behind. Roads are blocked, some with storm debris. The city is without electricity and running water and could be that way for weeks. JUHASZ: Now they want to come back, but they're not finding it easy. NIC HUNTER: You know, we don't have a clicker on the interstate with cars, but I think more people got out than I, unfortunately, thought hadn't. And he says, for the most part, they did. From member station WWNO, Aubri Juhasz discovered that while the damage isn't as bad as some expected, it's still some of the worst that the city's ever seen.ĪUBRI JUHASZ, BYLINE: In the days and hours leading up to Hurricane Laura's landfall, Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter begged residents to evacuate. Now residents are beginning to filter back into one of the hard-hit areas, Lake Charles. When Hurricane Laura barreled toward the Texas-Louisiana border earlier this week, many people evacuated, leaving behind their homes and businesses and not knowing what they'd return to find.
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