Magazines
TV Schedule
Disney+
National Geographic
National Geographic
National Geographic
Science
Travel
Animals
Culture & History
Environment
Science
Travel
Animals
Culture & History
Environment
Photographer Page
Annie Flanagan
Moving into their new home has been bittersweet for the Thomases. Debbie says she still misses her old house. It's where she married hurricane, where her kids grew up, and where her grandkids grew up. On the new house, she wrote scriptures on the studs. Her favorite, she says, is: "As far as me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
Debbie Thomas and her husband Hurricane have dinner with three of their grandsons at their home in Iowa, Louisiana. With their home in disrepair, their carport became their new living space where they shared meals and the kids played. To celebrate moving into their new home, Debbie made a gumbo.
A school bus picks up Debbie and Hurricane's grandchildren. When they finally moved into their reconstructed home in July, Debbie says, “We were all happy. I think the kids were more happy than us. They were running all over the place.”
Hurricane Thomas was born at home in 1957 as Hurricane Audrey, the seventh deadliest storm to strike the U.S., swept over southwest Louisiana. Hurricane has lost three roofs to hurricanes, and days after Hurricane Laura destroyed his home, he looks out into a pasture where his third roof landed. Though they've lived in Iowa most of their lives, if another storm hits, they say they're likely to relocate.
Kayzia Jack graduates from Barbe High School on May 23, 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this ceremony is the first time since March 2021 that the students have gathered in full. Due to historic flooding in Lake Charles, the Barbe High School was forced to relocate graduation to Sulphur High School in Sulphur, Louisiana.
Brandy Bushnell’s son Jayden rests on one of the family’s horses at their home in Iowa, Louisiana. During Hurricane Laura, they lost two of their four horses, they think from tornadoes that touched down during the storm.
Lake Charles residents LaShonda and Soney Lafleur host a birthday party for their daughters Alayna, Alyssa, and Hannah at Prien Lake Park. In Calcasieu Parish, enrollment was down 4,000 students this fall because of inadequate housing, according to the Calcasieu Parish school board.
In the parking lot at the Church at Lake Charles, Linda Marie Davis prays during a service. Behind her, an uprooted tree is still strewn over a house three months after Hurricane Laura and a month after Hurricane Delta. The church is in the northern half of the city where low-income and minority residents are concentrated and efforts to rebuild have been slower.
On the first Sunday after Hurricane Laura made landfall, Pastor Frederick Lafleur held an outdoor service in the parking lot of The Church at Lake Charles. A handful of members from his congregation gathered around him, broadcasting the sermon on Facebook for other church members to see. Pastor Lafleur has been preaching at his church since 1997 and says it was important to keep preaching that Sunday to “offer a word of hope” to his destroyed city.
Two months after Hurricane Laura and a month after Hurricane Delta, spray paint on the side of a building shows the region hasn't given up. Southwest Louisiana is the home of Cajun culture, a uniquely southern permutation of French-Canadian dialect and cuisine. “We have a very close-knit sense of community here. Our downtown and festival atmosphere is very well known and celebrated,” says Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter.