Pretty much every corner that you turn in Rayne, you're going to see more damage worse than what you just saw a block away.
Like the roof of the American Legion - completely ripped off, now in the parking lot. Businesses are one thing, but homes and other personal property are a whole different ballgame.
"I yelled at the kids and the wife, “Move! Run!”
Wesley Moring knew it wouldn't be long before a huge tree in his front yard came crashing down.
“I was standing at the doorway. I was watching the tree and I seen the roots. The roots started moving," Moring said.
The scary part was he didn't know which way it would fall.
"It would’ve demolished the full front of the house. "
Moring says he's lucky it just slammed down onto his vehicles.
“I guarantee you, Laura probably loosened her up. And this one just took her down.”
Lucky like a family not too far from Moring's home.
"This family here just moved in less than a week ago," explained Mayor Chuck Robichaux. "They’re just getting settled in, haven’t even put all their things in place and they’re having to move out until we can get it repaired."
Mayor Robichaux owns and just restored this 130-year-old historical house - the home of a former mayor. The family who lives here fortunately wasn't inside.
Audryanna Quarterman / Rayne Resident
"We were outside and we heard a big, loud boom," said Audryanna Quarterman. "Whenever we actually walked in, we didn’t see the tree; we just saw the roof down until we came outside and looked at it and then it was like, 'My gosh.'"
Half of this newly-restored historic home - gone.
"It doesn’t feel like home to me. There’s a tree in our house and half of our house is gone," added resident Aamina Logan.
These families still counting their blessings.
“Oh, well. It’s just material. That’s all. It don’t matter. We’re alive. We’re still here.”
The one thing that all these folks we spoke to here in Acadia Parish have in common is that they say they're lucky to be alive today, and they're thankful no one got hurt. Now, it's going to be a slow cleanup process as hopefully these folks can start to rebuild and move on with their lives past Hurricane Delta.
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