LAKE CHARLES, La. — Lake Charles residents are hoping and praying that they are not in the pathway of another tropical storm.
With winds over 140 miles per hour, Hurricane Laura devastated the Lakes area, and Friday, August 27 will mark the one-year anniversary of all the pain and heartache that hit Louisiana.
Residents are still recovering from Hurricane Laura.
"It almost looked like a war zone," said Lake Charles resident Marcus Russel.
Russel remembers the storm that tore the Lakes area apart like it was yesterday.
"You had debris everywhere, trees everywhere. You couldn’t walk down the street. [You] had to park at a location and actually walk to your residence," Russel said.
Resident Dana Boutte didn’t have insurance, so when his roof caved in, he didn't know what to do.
"All doors, I got two windows, both broken in the back. The whole carport in the back was apart it was in my bedroom all furniture," Boutte said.
He said the area has gone through so much turmoil from the past storms, but everyone is adjusting day by day.
"Everybody's suffering this a lot of deaths a lot of financial out of sequence came out but there has to happen,” Boutte said. “We have to adapt, overcome and move on and evolve."
Now with Tropical Storm Ida expected to affect Louisiana this weekend, the mayor of Lake Charles, Nic Hunter, said everyone is anxious.
"I can tell you that there is a literal PTSD out there within the community people are fearful. Their emotions are very raw from what happened last year,” Hunter said.
Our Lakes-area neighbors are still pushing through the devastation from last year, but they know something good will come out of it.
"I can say that those that sustained, it had to make you stronger, and hopefully it helps us in other areas of life as well,” Russel said.
In Lake Charles, there are still homes that have blue tarps. Other homes are being reconstructed.