Trump visits storm-ravaged Louisiana city without power
People without electricity dying of generator fumes
Days after Hurricane Laura slammed into Louisiana, hundreds of thousands of people remained without electricity Saturday, with the situation especially dire in Lake Charles, a city near the coastline where nearly all 80,000 residents have been without power for days and many have no water.
President Donald Trump arrived Saturday in the troubled city, where residents were beginning to pick up the pieces after the hurricane that made landfall Thursday as a Category 4 storm.
Trump walked along streets where downed power lines were strung along the ground and several large trees had crushed roofs. He briefly chatted with a group of men who were using chain saws to cut and remove one large tree that had fallen across a road.
“We have water in some locations, but it’s a trickle,” Mayor Nic Hunter said in a telephone interview, describing an overwhelmed water system that has frustrated residents and public officials alike.
More than an inconvenience, though, the electrical outages have been deadly, as several people who turned to generators to power refrigerators, lights and air conditioners have been overcome with fumes.
At least seven people have been killed by carbon monoxide from generators, including four members of a family found dead in a home in Lake Charles. A fifth member of that family was taken to a hospital. Their generator was located in a garage and the deadly gas was able to seep into the house through a garage door that was left open, the mayor said.
Another man in the Calcasieu Parish died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator, as did an 84-year-old man and an 80-year-old woman in the same home in Allen Parish, said health officials, who warned people never to place generators in homes or in closed garages.
The city’s largest hospital, Lake Charles Memorial Hospital Health System, whose phone lines were down, had to evacuate patients to other hospitals and was operating only its emergency room. The hospital said on its website that pregnant mothers should leave the area because the hospital was not providing obstetric services except in emergencies.
The power failure in Lake Charles could continue for weeks, the mayor said, and people have been racing to buy more gasoline to provide power to their homes.
“This is just way, way worse than Rita,” said Brett Geymann, 58, a former state lawmaker who lives in Moss Bluff, a suburb of Lake Charles, referring to the powerful hurricane that struck the area in 2005. He has been running a generator to operate his family’s refrigerator. “There is just destruction everywhere.”
In addition to the deaths tied to generators, five other people have died in Louisiana, four from falling trees and one person who drowned. In Texas, at least three deaths have been tied to carbon monoxide poisoning from generators.
Geymann said residents were increasingly worried about the lack of water as they contemplated not having flushable toilets or being able to wash their hands in a sink, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.