Thousands of Louisiana residents are scrambling to clean up the damage left by Hurricane Delta over the weekend, which left hundreds of thousands without power.
The storm rolled through the South as a Category 2 hurricane on Friday night, heavily hitting southwest Louisiana, where Hurricane Laura came through just six weeks ago.
“As if Hurricane Laura wasn’t enough, we had to have Delta come through last night,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said on Saturday. “While the storm wasn’t as powerful as Hurricane Laura, it was a very powerful storm, and it caused lots of damage.”
Initially, over 450,000 customers have been left without power in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi, with peak power outages in Louisiana around 688,000, higher than the 615,000 who lost power during Laura.
However, Edwards said on Sunday power outages have significantly improved, going from a peak of over 680,000 down to about 348,000.
Edwards also said damage assessments are underway, and 3,000 National Guard members have been supporting emergency operations in the area.
Delta left a number of local roads underwater and unable to be driven on, and have left 10,000 people displaced in shelters, some of whom have been out of their homes since Hurricane Laura, according to the governor.
The storm hit the coastal town of Creole on Friday and later moved over to Lake Charles, a waterfront city about 30 miles inland where Laura had damaged nearly every home and building. According to USA Today, moldy mattresses, sawed-up trees, and other debris still line the streets in the city.
Lake Charles had the highest rainfall totals with about 15 inches, Edwards said.
Sam Jones, 77, waited out the storm in his Lake Charles home but planned to leave Sunday to stay with his son in Texas.
“I don’t see any electricity coming back anytime soon, so I’m going to give them about a week and then come back,” Jones told Reuters. “When you can’t put any air on, it puts you to where you don’t get a good night sleep.”
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