Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker says they are bouncing back after an EF-3 tornado ripped through their town Thursday morning. Walker says the volunteerism has been unbelievable, especially from Louisiana Tech students. He relayed this story from a woman who lost several trees on her property.
“The lady’s yard looked perfect and I said you did a lot of work today, she said no, there were 30 college kids that came from Louisiana Tech and did all this for me, she said it was unbelievable and she just started crying,” said Walker.
Walker says the biggest immediate concern is restoring the power by the end of the weekend and also getting trees off of homes.
“There’s going to be weeks and weeks of debris removal and then months and months and months of restoring homes,” said Walker.
Walker estimates the damages to homes and businesses in the hundreds.
“When I say damaged, I’m not just talking about limbs that hit the side of the house or tore a part of the roof, I’m talking about trees that literally dissected houses,” said Walker.
The EF 3 tornado also produced damage in Union Parish. Officials there say about 80 structures damaged, including 15 to 20 chicken houses.
(Picture courtesy of Ronny Walker’s facebook page.)
