It’s been one week since Hurricane Laura made landfall in Cameron Parish and cut a line of devastation from Lake Charles to Ruston.
Governor John Bel Edwards says no storm has ever maintained so much strength across so much of the state but despite the damage, he’s optimistic about the recovery.
“I was very encouraged just by the sheer number of people, the resources brought to bear, the progress that has been made over a seven day period but we clearly have a very, very long way to go,” says Edwards.
The Public Service Commission reports 211,806 households are still without power, down from the post-Laura peak of 615,000. Edwards warns many of those still out are in the hardest-hit areas.
We are getting down to that point now where the remaining customers are going to be harder, it is going to take longer to get their power restored,” says Edwards.
Nearly all of Winn, Beauregard, Calcasieu, and Cameron Parishes are still without power. Half to a third of customers in Natchitoches, Sabine, Vernon, Grant, and Allen Parishes are still out. These numbers come from the PSC as of 9AM.
Edwards says as of this morning 11,954 people are being sheltered in the state, nearly all in hotels, and he’s concerned about what would happen if out of state evacuees were to return right now.
“If for example we had 4,000 people who came back from Texas but they needed to be sheltered in Louisiana, we would be very, very hard-pressed to meet that demand,” says Edwards.
The Governor asks anyone being sheltered out of state to remain out of state for the time being.
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