Roger Watson of Montaigne Street in New Iberia was having a normal Wednesday.

He was on the phone live with the Howard Stern Show participating in a Hollywood Squares skit and getting ready to drop another TikTok video on social media, where his videos have over 2 billion views.

Within minutes, Watson went from his character on the Howard Stern Show as Rooster the Goat to hero mode, as he drove into the storm damaged area of a mobile home park minutes after the tornado hit.

“I was actually on the Howard Stern Show when it hit …we had just signed off and it sounded like a bulldozer hit the ground,” Watson said. “The tornado came over the house where the trailer park was, you could see transformers blowing, you could hear ‘boom’ and it took the roof off one apartment and my father-in-law stood there shocked. He heard a lady scream and as it went to the next apartment, he took off running. The tornado was 100 yards away from him.

“People were running out of their houses screaming, you couldn’t hear it coming, you couldn’t see it, it was calm and came from the middle of nowhere,” Watson added.

Watson jumped in his vehicle and went to the area where the tornado had just hit. The rain was so strong there was zero visibility. Then he saw a sight that shocked him. It appeared a boy was in the air about 15 feet up, or maybe stuck in a tree.

“I heard a little boy hollering, ‘mama, mama.’ It was storming and raining and you could hardly see. Then I saw him, the boy was 15 to 16 feet in the air … I thought he was stuck in a tree,” Watson said. “Power lines are down and they were sparking, water was sparking from power lines being in the water.”

As he got closer, Watson said, “a trailer rolled one or twice and landed on top of a portable building. The boy was able to climb up on top of the axles and yell for help. That’s why it looked like he was floating in mid-air.”

The National Weather Service said the tornado was a strong EF-2 tornado going 135 miles per hour.

“A building collapsed on someone’s truck, you could smell gas and the water was sparking as the ground was saturating in gas,” Watson said. “The other man who wanted to help others said, ‘Get home to your family! I said ‘no, I gotta help, my family knows I love them and my wife would want to know I died trying to help others.’ This man was older and he had his oxygen tank. I didn’t have mine but I need one because I have breathing issues. So I told him, ‘I may need some hits off your oxygen!’ We then put our arms around each other and started climbing up the rubble.”

The two climbed up and got the boy down and then found his mother at a neighbor’s house.

Then they heard someone else calling for help in the rubble.

“Another trailer rolled over so we dug through the floor and got an older man out through the rubble,” Watson said. “We used hammers and anything we would dig with. At this point the cops and EMT’s showed up.”

Another man who had injuries was thrown into a tree line.

“He heard the noise, opened the door of his trailer and the wind was so strong he couldn’t close his door. Once he closed his door, the house exploded,” Watson said. “I asked him, ‘What do you mean exploded?’ It turned out the walls expanded under the pressure and blew them off and threw the axles onto the trailer next to him.”

WHen all was said and done, Watson contacted the newspaper.

“When I saw the governor said in the Daily Iberian, ‘The people of Southport … Not all of them have a title, not all of them are public servants, but they saw a neighbor in need and they went and helped. They continue to do that,’ well, man, that really hit home! We did all come together,” Watson said. “So many people were risking our lives to help each other.”

Watson said there is something special about Louisiana.

“Social media has us believing we aren’t supposed to like each other if we don’t look the same or talk the same,” he said. “Not in the south. We all help each other out. If this happened in California, I think it would be different. If it happened in those upper libreral states, I don’t think this would go down.”

He said the people who donated food, ice, water and shelter in the next few days also made a difference.

“In the next few days, people were donating food and water. A woman had 40 bags of ice in her car and 20 more bags. I couldn’t believe it. People were making burgers for free,” Watson said. “There is a running joke, ‘People in the south just need an excuse to cook something.” But you lose your faith for a minute, but then you sit down. Eat something, you realize, ‘I am not an animal, I am not a beast, I am a person.’ You give someone back a sense of humanity. Give them some food or a kind gesture and it goes a long way.”

When he was helping others, Watson was recognized as the famous person on social media channels like TikTok and YouTube.

I told my wife, ‘This ain’t nothing new to us, so we need to get some gas in case another storm comes we gotta get up and out of here.’ Then a lady stopped me and said ‘Mr. TikTok, if you are going to the store, please pick me up some diapers.’ I told her to keep her cash, she’s gonna need it.” Watson said. “I got the size and kind of diapers and brought them back. She broke down and cried.”

As for that woman, Watson said, “I don’t know her personally, we just wave to each other here and there. But when we need each other, we are brother and sister. And now we are brother and sister, We just sat there and cried … these people lost everything.”

Watson said in the coming weeks, months and years, people should remember what happened and the victims.

“Everyone thinks the storm lasted 20 minutes and it’s over. No, these people are going to be scarred for life. The aftermath is where the miracles happen,” he said. “This neighborhood will be damaged for a while. Sure we will rebuild the apartments, but we have to rebuild the people. A new apartment doesn’t mean these people are ok. “

Now he wants to visit those he helped during the storm.

“I just want to find the child and tell him I was the one who heard him and find the guy in the jeep who was there first and helped me,” Watson said. “We were the first two in the trailer park who didn’t live there. I told him, as long as we are breathing, don’t give up, let’s keep breathing.”

(Story and stats of the tornado HERE)