saw one of the most powerful storms in its history. To add to the woes, on August 27, Thursday, U.S. While the world is still grappling with the evils of the pandemic, California and nearby areas are in blazes. That should be our new meaning for resilience.The nature seems to be in some kind of tussle with the mankind. Nothing we can do will spare us from the inevitable natural disasters, but we can take steps to plan ahead and protect ourselves from the other things that threaten our economy and our opportunities for prosperity. So, as we turn our attention to the recovery of major parts of our state, we should do so with an eye on the future. Today we are thinking of it as a way to create a stronger, healthier, and more equitable economy – one that looks more towards the future and is better able to withstand the other disruptions that will surely come. That’s because the people who live here refuse to be kept down by circumstances that are thrust upon them that are beyond their control.īut in this time of COVID-19, we have begun to look at resilience in a new way. Much as been made of the way Louisiana continues to bounce back from disasters, whether it’s hurricanes, floods, or the BP oil spill. Given the spirit and tenacity of Louisiana people, there is every reason to believe that will happen again, even as the situation today could hardly be more dire.īut recovery brings to mind another word that’s just as important – resilience. It did, but in a much more positive way than most imagined.Īs the city rebuilt it brought back its downtown, turning it into a vibrant area with shops, restaurants, and apartments filling up old buildings that were once abandoned eyesores. In the case of Lake Charles, for instance, Hurricane Rita caused damage that many thought would leave a permanent mark on the city. #Hurricane laura aftermath how to#Now the work of recovery begins, and that’s one thing Louisiana knows how to do well. But for the most part, people are not underwater. Rivers and bayous are still swollen, and the threat of additional flooding isn’t over yet. That’s not to say there still wasn’t plenty of water filling streets and neighborhoods. But the storm took a last-minute jog to the east which sent the highest surge into uninhabited wetlands that spared Lake Charles from an unprecedented amount of flooding. Forecasters were predicting a storm surge of as much as 20-feet south of Lake Charles which would have inundated the city. Today more than half a million people in the state are without power and more than 200,000 without drinking water.īut it’s the lack of another kind of water that made a difference for much of the area. Those winds created miles of destruction, smashing buildings, damaging roofs, knocking down trees, and ripping down untold numbers of powerlines. That’s because the 150 mile an hour winds that walloped the coast were the strongest of any modern storm to make landfall in Louisiana. Residents who rode out the storm all say the experience was worse than Rita. The silver lining, if there was one, was that as bad as things were, they could have been much worse. It’s a reminder of how vulnerable we are, but it also showcases many of our strengths. It seems particularly ironic that just shy of the 15 th anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an even more powerful storm named Laura rammed through the southwest Louisiana coast bringing with it hundreds of miles of devastation.
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