Cleanup begins after Francine in Louisiana

Neighbors are helping neighbors in the aftermath of Hurricane Francine.

Transcript

00:00Right now we want to check in with AccuWeather meteorologist and storm chaser Tony Laubach live

00:04in Lafayette, Louisiana with the latest. Tony, you couldn't see the sun shining here but I know

00:08it's a day of cleanup and recovery. Yeah, we always appreciate the nice weather the days

00:16after storms. Unfortunately for most folks along the south coast of Louisiana, it was definitely

00:21a nice day to get out and do some of that cleanup. We worked our way back last night

00:26after intercepting the eyewall in Ahoma, Louisiana. We made our hour-long trek to the west

00:31to get back to Morgan City and waking up still this morning without power and electricity. But

00:36we were not without the willpower of the residents out there who were taking care of a lot of the

00:40cleanup. Fortunately, most of the damage seemed to be limited to minor damage to some structures.

00:45We saw a lot of tree damage, some roof damage in there as well, and even some flooding in some of

00:49the areas. There's a park north of town that had a lot of water in it. That was actually one of the

00:53places we were stationed at yesterday prior to our move to the east to get to Ahoma, Louisiana

00:58to intercept that eyewall. You see a lot of the video here of folks taking care of their neighbors

01:03working to clean up some of the debris not only from their own yards but from the yards of their

01:07friends, family, and total strangers. This one done a little more damage around here for us. It didn't

01:14stay as long but a lot more debris, a lot more water. Just helping the neighbors, a little

01:20debris cleaning, took care of the stuff around my house and the neighbors still have some debris

01:27so we're going to get it cleared up. Just to do it, help everybody out. That's how we do around here.

01:34And that was a sentiment shared by numerous folks that we talked to. We were in and out a lot of

01:38the neighborhoods out there. Again, most folks without power there for all the overnight hours.

01:42We did not even have cell phone service for a majority of the evening until the morning hours.

01:47A lot of folks really just kind of hankering in, doing it the old-fashioned way. Just going door

01:51to door, knocking on and asking, how can we help you today? We were fortunate enough to have some

01:56bottled water on us so we were handing that out as we were working our way around as well.

02:00Again, that's what these things happen. It kind of brings out the best in people unfortunately

02:05as we know it kind of takes these events to really bring everybody together. But that is

02:08some good news there. Now again, no major issues in town outside of the electricity. We saw one of

02:14the gas stations as we were departing a few hours ago that finally came online. So lines of folks

02:19there willing to fill up their tanks and their generators once again as many of them are stuck

02:24with using generators until power gets restored to everybody. Not just in Morgan City but along

02:29the coastal areas there of southern Louisiana. The eyewall making impact last night. Yesterday

02:34evening, talking to a lot of those neighbors, dealing with those conditions for upwards of

02:38six hours yesterday. And that is not an exaggeration, Jeff. We were talking last night

02:42during one of our hits even in the eye how breezy and how windy it was. So even destructive winds

02:48there in the eye. So certainly a long night for folks. They were happy to be enjoying a quiet day

02:53to get things back in the direction of normal. That's very good news there. Thanks for your

02:57reporting, Tony. Good stuff as we kind of take the pulse of what's going on 23 hours after landfall

03:04up in Lafayette, Louisiana.