Hurricane Laura’s Alexandria impact

ALEXANDRIA, La. (KALB) - After Hurricane Laura passed through Alexandria, people started cleaning up their homes, and communities. In the Briarwood community, people worked to clean several downed trees, branches, and limbs. Some of the damage we saw in the community included a broken brick chimney, a knocked down fence and downed power lines.

Some fallen trees even blocked roads. Residents explained the night before the storm was rough and that Hurricane Laura was a nasty experience. Alexandria resident Greg Davis shared what his night was like through the storm.

“Several times I thought it was going to be a tornado, cause it was like an almost freight train coming though. It was pretty, it was nasty, I’m just happy to be a survivor.” Davis explained Hurricane Laura brought, “some pretty serious gusts”, and he heard wind pass that made his house shake.

“The one at the end of the driveway on my neighbor’s side it took the power pole down,” Davis said. He explained he will continue cleaning up and, “Just keep moving on.”

On North MacArthur Drive, a billboard was buckled. Throughout the city Laura shut off power, and because of that drivers should remember to take extra caution as traffic lights are off. Drivers should treat every traffic light as a four way stop to avoid wrecks or accidents. Another traffic concern are wet roads.

Near Horseshoe Drive, crews worked to remove fallen trees over downed lines. A woman from New Orleans remembered her Hurricane Katrina experience. Judy Schlag explained that Hurricane Laura was scary as she cleaned up trees from her yard.

“Lovely Hurricane Laura last night and it was pretty scary. The winds really were, they were strong, they took down a lot of trees,” Schlag said. “We’ve been cleaning up debris. That noise it’s just you hear that woo, that howling. You don’t know if it’s a tornado coming, you don’t know if your roof is going to go off. These pecan trees they just snap. These thing’s will snap and come on your house they don’t care.”

Schlag said her neighbor had a tree on his carport, after going through the same thing about a year ago.

Near downtown Alexandria, we did see a car in water. A reminder that drivers should never drive into floodwaters. Hurricane Laura impacted our state in several ways, but after the storm there was some bright news.

Davis showed us a baby squirrel he rescued while cleaning his yard.

The lesson he shared, “It’s not just humans affected.”

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