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Hurricane Laura, which hit the southwestern corner of the state in September with winds of 150 miles per hour, was one of the most powerful storms on record in Louisiana. Six weeks later, Hurricane Delta weakened to a Category 2 by the time it made landfall, but still battered towns that were still trying to recover from Laura.
In Westlake, Louisiana, a town of about 5,000 near Lake Charles, Laura’s winds blew across the rooftops, collapsed a wall at City Hall, and snapped 20 pines in half. feet high, said Robert Hardey, the mayor. Then came Delta.
“We were already beaten, with blue tarps everywhere, and it blew up all the tarps,” he said of the second storm. “There wasn’t a telephone pole standing, there wasn’t a business that wasn’t hit, there isn’t a house that wasn’t damaged.
Mr Hardey said he expected it would cost $ 6 million, nearly half the city’s budget, to clean up fallen trees and debris left over from the two storms. He said the federal government told him it would cover 75% of the cost, but the city either needs more funds or will go into serious debt in the long run.
“I can’t take this blow,” Mr. Hardey said.
The high frequency of storms this year should remind residents and communities of hurricane-prone areas to continue to adapt, as climate change threatens to increase damage from these storms, said Gary W. Yohe, professor of storms. economics and environmental studies at the Huffington Foundation. Wesleyan University.
Rather than rebuilding a shopping center flooded by a hurricane, for example, a city should consider building a park that can better absorb water from future storms, he said.
“Before reflexively rebuilding where you are, think about it,” Professor Yohe said. “We don’t know where the next one will go, but I know there will be a next one. And they tend to get worse.
Rick Rojas and Neil Vigdor contributed reporting.
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