Repairs begin for tornado damage
The parade of vehicles full of local residents, sightseers and first responders that were present Wednesday following the tornado that dropped on the Southport subdivision Wednesday were all absent by Thursday afternoon.
The New Iberia Police Department had blockaded Southport to the general public following the devastation of the storm that destroyed several mobile homes and apartment buildings. By Thursday afternoon, only residents who lived in the area were allowed to enter the area along with Cleco workers who were still fixing the electrical lines that were down.
While the core of the subdivision had gotten away with minor damage, the set of apartment buildings on Montaigne Street adjacent to a sugar cane field along Admiral Doyle Drive were completely destroyed as a result of the tornado.
A set of tenants living in building that had its roof completely blown off were shuffling trash and other belongings Thursday.
“I was there when it happened, it was scary,” a tenant, who asked not to be identified, said.
Southport was not the only victim of major damage. Along with Iberia Medical Center, which had suffered extreme damage to the exterior of the medical office facility on the Main Campus, areas of Old Jeanerette Road were closed periodically throughout the day from Bayou Boulevard to Emile Verret Drive for debris collection and Cleco to work on restoring electricity, according to the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Fran Pheonix with Cleco said Thursday afternoon that about 422 customers were still without power, but all homes that did not sustain any type of structural damage would most likely be back up and running by the end of the day.
For customers that did receive property damage that affected their ability to get power, Phoenix said those customers would have to contact electricians.
In all of Louisiana, about 3,400 customers were without power by the height of the storm. Phoenix said that the number of homes out in Iberia was manageable, and outside crews were not needed to work on repairs.
“A lot of the issues were broken poles, downed wire and flying debris,” Phoenix said.
Gov. John Bel Edwards touched down in New Iberia Thursday to assess the damage in Iberia Parish and provide an update on what the state was doing to begin repairing the damage in the area.