Strong winds take out trees, power in Iberia Parish
Published 6:00 am Monday, October 23, 2017
- Juanita Ewing of New Iberia points out damages — several downed trees in her yard, boats turned over, the innards of her shed now strewn about outside — after heavy winds moved through the area early Sunday morning. The Ewings and their neighbors say it was a tornado.
Jasper Pitre says his whole family jumped out of bed early Sunday morning when a solid wall of wind slammed into the front of his house near Jefferson Terrace Boulevard and Weeks Island Road.
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“That was a twister, that wasn’t no wind,” he said. “We all jumped up when it hit the front of the house.”
The Pitres’ say the wind came through between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m. Sunday morning and shook the house.
“It was just a big ‘whoosh,’ and when the tree fell, the ground shook,” he said.
Out front, several large trees were severed at the trunk and strewn about the yard. Across the street, stalks of sugar cane were twisted and bent back over themselves.
Heavy winds knocked power out throughout the city Sunday. In the early evening, Cleco had reported nearly 200 residential outages.
Surprisingly, the storm did not leave the Pitres’ or their neighbors, J.T. and Juanita Ewing, without power.
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The Ewings slept through much of the storm, including the falling trees, Juanita said.
“We heard the wind and we have a metal roof, so we heard the rain, but we slept right through the tree falling,” Juanita said.
Out front, a massive tree had fallen sideways, into a fire hydrant and pulling it out of the ground.
One boat in their backyard had been turned on its side and another flipped completely over. A metal shed also suffered major damage.
“We’re getting estimates now,” Juanita said. “We need help. We’re gonna clear it on our own, but we need help from the Parish,” she said. “We are so blessed. This could have taken our house.”
The Ewings say they haven’t heard from the Parish, or reached out to them yet. J.T. said he is talking to his insurance company first.
“We’ve tried to get the parish to cut the trees in front for years. They’ve never done it,” he said. “Maybe, if I talk to Larry (Richard, Iberia Parish President), he’d do it.”
Prescott Marshall, spokesperson for the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for Iberia Parish, said he had heard reports of scattered power outages Sunday but no major injuries or property damage.
