After the storm: Cleanup, power restoration continue
Leader photo by Nancy Bergeron
The wind from Sunday’s thunderstorm that ripped through Ruston caused a large sign at the Hampton Inn to snap in half and crash into the parking lot.
Power restoration and debris cleanup continued across Lincoln Parish on Monday after another round of severe thunderstorms moved through the area Sunday afternoon.
“This stuff just came out of nowhere,” parish homeland security Director Kip Franklin said.
At one point, close to 17,000 utility customers parishwide were without electricity, including 8,000 in Ruston. As of midday Monday, the parishwide total was down to about 3,000, almost all customers of either Entergy or Claiborne Electric Cooperative.
Claiborne Electric spokesperson Emmalee Tingle said the company doesn’t have a restoration projection because damage is still being assessed in some areas.
Power was back on throughout Ruston by 11 p.m. The city cannot con-nect lines to individual residences; thus, some customers may still be in the dark waiting for electricians.
“Right now, we’re just trying to pick up loose pieces,” Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker said Monday morning.
The storm knocked out power to 80% of the city; that’s about 8,000 customers. By 6:15 p.m. Sunday, 75% of the power was back on.
“To get everything back up as quickly as we did speaks volumes about our crews,” Walker said.
The storm dumped as much as 1.24 inches of rain on parts of the parish and packed winds of up to 65 mph as it moved through, according to the National Weather Service in Shreveport.
The straight- line winds caused limbs and trees to fall across power lines and block roads. As many as 30 trees obstructed roadways in the storm’s aftermath.
“They’re going to have to be doing cleanup for a while,” Sheriff Stephen Williams said.
Though some roads were closed while deputies and utility crews removed debris, all were reopened by Monday.
“Other than the blockages, we really came out of this in pretty decent shape,” Williams said.
In Ruston, wind gusts caused a sign above the Hampton Inn to snap about halfway up, sending the top part crashing down adjacent to a parking lot. The aluminum poles on at least three traffic signals on the I-20 north service road and La. Hwy. 33, were twisted at about 30-degree angles, while a large piece of metal from the roof a downtown bank sheared off, landing in the parking lane.
But overall, the city fared well, Walker said.
“It was just there for a while, it was really shaky,” he said.
