Yesterday Gov. John Bel Edwards warned that residents were in for a long recovery, with more than 300,000 power outages across the state and hundreds of thousands of people without water entirely or under boil water advisories. Crews were starting to patch roofs, but many homes in Lake Charles wrecked by the storm were still untouched.
The Category 4 hurricane, which made landfall Thursday just south of Lake Charles near Cameron, Louisiana, packed 150-mph winds and a storm surge that officials said was as high as 15 feet in some areas. So far 18 deaths in Texas and Louisiana have been attributed to the storm; more than half of those people were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from the unsafe operation of generators.
FEMA sent hundreds of workers to the region. The Louisiana National Guard, meanwhile, had handed out hundreds of thousands of bottles of water and meals and nearly 20,000 tarps. Local government entities, church groups, and non-profits are all mobilizing to help in the recovery effort.
