Hurricane Delta Drives Louisianans From Their Homes Yet Again

 Ron Brackett and Jan Wesner Childs

Published: October 8, 2020

As Hurricane Delta roared toward the northern Gulf Coast on Thursday, officials implored residents to hurry their final preparations for the potentially devastating storm.

Hurricane warnings have been issued for much of southwestern Louisiana, where just weeks ago Hurricane Laura destroyed 10,000 homes and left 35,000 others with major damage, according to Gov. John Bel Edwards.

"Those structures have not yet been repaired. The electrical infrastructure there is in the process of being repaired. And we’ve got people who are very tired. We’re still sheltering over 6,000 people from southwest Louisiana in 12 hotels, primarily in New Orleans," Edwards said in a radio interview Thursday. "It’s going to be a very challenging situation."

(Hurricane Delta Tracker: Spaghetti Plots, Projected Path, Satellite and More)

Parts of Cameron Parish remain under an evacuation order issued before Laura. Several other parishes and cities have issued mandatory evacuation orders or asked residents to voluntarily leave their homes because of Hurricane Delta.

Traffic is jammed on I-10 westbound amid evacuations ahead of Hurricane Delta on Oct. 8, 2020, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Thousands of people have not been able to return to their homes in the aftermath of Laura.

"We do not know what to do. There is already nothing to go back to. No houses, nothing," Debra Bowlin an evacuee from Lake Charles who is staying at a New Orleans hotel, told WDSU.

"The first time it tore us up, this time it would wipe us out," Peter Adams, another Lake Charles evacuee, told the TV station.

"This is not a bad dream. It’s not a test run. These are the cards that we have been dealt," Nic Hunter, the mayor of Lake Charles, said in a video posted on Facebook Thursday morning.

Hunter urged residents of Calcasieu Parish to evacuate Thursday before time ran out, and he said city buses would take people to evacuation centers.

"I know that we’ve been through a lot and I know that we’re tired. But we have a job to do right now, and that job is to keep ourselves safe," Hunter said.

Later at a briefing, Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso said, "If you choose to stay, we're not coming to your house and dragging you out. But be prepared to take care of yourself. We will not, and may not, be able to get to you."

Debris from Hurricane Laura is pilled up in Bell City, Louisiana, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020, as Hurricane Delta approached the Gulf Coast.

More than 1,000 National Guardsmen, 7,500 utility workers and dozens of high water rescue vehicles, boats and aircraft are standing by if needed, Gov. Edwards said in a news conference Wednesday. He said another 8,000 utility workers are waiting outside the state.

Edwards said getting the lights back on after Delta could take longer because of the damage remaining after Laura.

The town of Cameron wasn't expecting power to be restored until January – and that was before Delta.

"Very, very few people have returned," Cameron Fire Chief Tim Dupont told weather.com Wednesday afternoon. "We’ve actually never been lifted from the mandatory evacuation, so it’s kind of like there’s not supposed to be anybody down here."

Dupont, whose own home lost its roof and had four feet of water inside, and his firefighters have been living in trailers. They were busy Wednesday moving their trucks out of harm's way once again.

As of Thursday morning, Hurricane Delta was forecast to make landfall Friday. Cameron Parish and other places slammed by Laura, including Lake Charles, were directly in Delta's crosshairs.

Much of the northern Gulf Coast has been threatened multiple times by tropical cyclones this spring, summer and fall. Southern Louisiana has been in the forecast cone of a tropical system six times this year, while at the same time being gripped by the coronavirus pandemic.

(MORE: Where Hurricane Delta Evacuations Have Been Issued in Louisiana, Alabama)

Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng, whose area includes Grand Isle, said people shouldn't the fatigue and pressure of the past six months keep them from staying vigilant.

"2020 has just been so difficult," Sheng told weather.com Wednesday evening. "It doesn’t matter what happened in the past, it doesn't lessen the threat coming our way now."

She was standing in front of a levee in Grand Isle that is being shored up ahead of the storm.

Several other areas have also issued some sort of evacuation or advisory. Residents in parts of Plaquemines Parish and areas of New Orleans outside the levees were advised to leave, and officials in Port Fourchon, which is south of New Orleans and serves the oil and gas industry, said tenants should evacuate nonessential employees.

The NFL's New Orleans Saints briefly considered evacuating the team to Indianapolis and moving their Monday night game against the Los Angeles Chargers there as well, NOLA.com reported. But they decided to stay in New Orleans and will play the Chargers in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome as originally planned, according to The Athletic reporter Jeff Duncan.

Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge swapped locations for what was supposed to be a home game against Missouri Saturday afternoon. Instead, LSU will travel to Columbia, Missouri.

Several parishes announced school closures, including Acadia, Calcasieu, Iberia, Lafayette, Jefferson Davis, St. Martin and Vermilion.

Residents and officials in coastal Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle were also making preparations for the storm. Many of those areas are still recovering from Hurricane Sally, which pummeled communities from Dauphin Island, Alabama, to Panama City, Florida, three weeks ago.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey ordered tourists and visitors to leave barrier island communities, including Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.

"Being impacted by a storm within 20 days of landfall that Sally made, it could be catastrophic to our area," Mark Ingram, a spokesman for Alabama power company Baldwin EMC, told WALA-TV.

Sally came ashore near Gulf Shores in Baldwin County. While power has mostly been restored, infrastructure that hasn't yet been repaired is especially vulnerable to another storm.

"We’ve got poles that are still leaning," Ingram said. "We’ve got low-hanging power lines."

In Mississippi, 11 shelters are ready to open if needed, Emergency Management Agency Director Greg Michel said, according to the Hattiesburg American. Coast counties in the southwestern corner of the state and along the Mississippi River are expected to see the worst impact from Hurricane Delta, Michel said.

Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama have all issued emergency declarations for Hurricane Delta. Edwards said he spoke with President Donald Trump, who agreed to approve the state's request for a federal emergency declaration ahead of the storm, the Associated Press reported.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.