Lemroy Culbert woke up to the sight of his building on TV.
Only he couldn’t tell at first that it was his building, because a main wall was lying as a pile of bricks on the sidewalk.
“My wife said, ‘I think I just saw your building,’” Culbert said. “When they came back to it, I didn’t recognize it until I saw (architectural elements on an undamaged part of the building).”
Culbert bought the building — a former furniture store — on Lee Street two years ago. He was planning to renovate it for reuse, but “I may have to tear it down now.”
“Nobody died; nobody got hurt,” Culbert said. “Whatever gets torn down, we can build it up again.”
Culbert’s building was one of many commercial and residential structures that were badly damaged in the severe storms that tore through Central Louisiana Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The National Weather Service confirmed the storm included three tornadoes.
In Alexandria, the damage was localized in a corridor between Masonic Drive and Interstate 49.
Fallout from the storms could clearly be seen Thursday in areas including around the Sonia Quarters and Martin Park neighborhoods, South MacArthur Drive, North Mall Drive and Lee and Overton streets.
Large walls were crumbled. Windows were blown out. Pieces of roofing were torn off. A sheet of plywood had cut into a metal air conditioning unit like a knife into butter.
A large storage container was picked up and tossed into a drainage canal. Metal fencing was twisted into knots. Large trees were uprooted or snapped in two.
“It takes a lot of force to do that,” said Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy. “Imagine the kind of pressure that takes.”
Across the street from Culbert’s building, Joe Phoenix was taking pictures of damage at his business, Joe’s Cleaning Supplies. He had left the building only about 30 minutes before the storm hit.
The Joe’s Cleaning Supplies building escaped major damage, as did Phoenix’s home in Pineville, which is close to another hard-hit area, Donahue Ferry Road.
But an adjacent building on Lee Street that Phoenix owns had a large section of roof torn off.
“I got a call last night that ‘Joe, you need to get to your shop.’ I said, ‘I’m not going anywhere,'” Phoenix said. “There’s already some water damage (in the building with the damaged roof). We’ll have to put a tarp or something there to try to protect it until the roof is fixed.”
The storm also did significant damage in Pineville along Donahue Ferry Road, around Louisiana College and up towards the Kingsville area. Multiple roads were blocked by debris — they have since been cleared — and trees or tree limbs came down on several houses.
Parts of Ball also had significant damage, as well as the Glenmora area.
The Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office reports no injuries.
“We are very fortunate and very blessed that no one was hurt,” said RPSO Public Information Officer Capt. Tommy Carnline, “especially when you drive around and see the damage. One of our deputies found a lady who lives on Washboard Road (in Ball), she got the alert on her phone and grabbed her 3-month-old child right before a tree came through her window. So I think people are paying attention and doing what they’re supposed to do.”
“We’re just really thankful and in awe that what could have been multiple tornadoes coming through this area did not cause an injury of any significance that we’re aware of,” said Rich Dupree, chief of staff to Pineville Mayor Clarence Fields.
Several thousand customers lost power in the storms, mostly in Rapides Parish. At about 10:30 a.m. Friday, Cleco reported approximately 1,890 customers in Rapides Parish did not have power. It’s expected to take the company multiple days to restore power to all of its customers.
“Our crews are working safely and efficiently to tackle the damage left behind by the tornadoes and strong winds that moved across central Louisiana,” said James Lass, general manager of distribution operations and emergency management. “We have all available crews on hand, clearing and cleaning debris, as well as replacing broken poles, cross arms and downed wire.”
Alexandria Director of Utilities Michael Marcotte said at the height, about 5,800 households in Alexandria were without power. The city runs its own utility system and is not part of Cleco’s network. By 2 p.m. Thursday, that number had dropped to between 1,500 and 1,900.
Although the total number of outages was far fewer than in those in Hurricane Gustav in 2008, this storm had more individual households still without power after all circuits had been restored.
“That tells you it did a lot of damage,” Roy said. “You’re talking about wires being ripped off houses. This was bad stuff.”
Marcotte said it may take two or three weeks to remove all of the debris.
by Jeff Matthews (2018, Nov 1 / Updated 2018, Nov 2) Alexandria Town Talk
