365 Days of Disaster

(KALB) - With all of the challenges 2020 has brought Louisiana, we cover the natural disasters that have stricken the state.

We start with December 16, 2019, where 33 twisters affected both Louisiana and Mississippi. One of those tornadoes traveled 62 miles from DeRidder through Alexandria, causing destruction to various iconic city structures such as the Johnny Downs Sports Complex.

Then hurricane season arrived with Hurricane Laura striking Louisiana on August 27. With winds of 150 mph, Laura was the strongest hurricane since 1856 to strike not only Louisiana but the nation. It brought category two strength wind gusts into Alexandria with widespread power outages and structural damage.

After Laura passed through, another threat arrived in a different form. A post-Laura heatwave arrived while most people were still out of power, causing some people to develop heat illnesses. Temperatures reached the 90′s for 19 days with heat indices at times reaching 100 degrees or more.

As if one hurricane was not enough, another was poised to hit Cenla once again. On October 9, Delta made landfall in Louisiana as a category two hurricane. While Laura was more of a wind maker, Delta brought more flooding to Cenla with peak rainfall amounts reaching 15 inches in only three days.

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