ST. MARTIN PARISH — Many residents in Henderson were left with a damaged roof, or no roof following the destruction of a tornado Monday evening.
If you’re walking through Henderson, you’ll see hundreds of trees down, many residences with broken roofs, and power lines blocking off the street.
St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Terry Guidry said the tornado caused damage to over 100 homes throughout St. Martin Parish, and the total number continues to increase.
On one street in Henderson, Gary Dupuis who evacuated his trailer home during the tornado came back to a surprise.
“Something you work for all your life,” Dupuis said. “To have nice things and it's gone in just a matter of minutes.”
Damage to his roof and window. His shed and carport were both demolished, and his over 7,000-pound camper was turned on its side.
“Filed a claim on it and insurance has deemed it totaled,” Dupuis said.
“As soon as the roads clear they’ll be sending a truck here to upright it and haul it off We’ve been fortunate that we had lots of people to come and help us get it cleaned up.”
Among those people helping with clean up is volunteer Pastor Scott Brantingham with Love Acadiana.
“Mostly we’ve been seeing roofing blown off and trees landing on roofs and causing holes and damage and the water damage that goes with it,” Brantingham said.
The volunteers have been out in Henderson since Tuesday tarping roofs and cutting trees, and Brantingham said he’s been seeing neighbors helping neighbors.
“We were at the house of a lady this morning, and I looked at her house yesterday, part of her roof was gone, a tree was down,” Brantigham said.
“We get here this morning some local people had gotten metal and started closing up her roof, so we cut the tree and just helped them finish up. We’ve seen that everywhere.”
Guidry said one person in their camper was killed Monday evening. He advises those in the upcoming days to evacuate campers, and the sheriff’s office is providing tarps and assessments to homes.
Guidry said if your home is damaged to report it to Damage.la.gov.
