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Family shares story of surviving Hurricane Laura

Posted at 9:33 AM, Aug 29, 2020
and last updated 2021-01-03 14:18:44-05

While so many people chose to evacuate, others decided to ride out Hurricane Laura.

For those who stayed, we're hearing incredible stories of survival.

Robin Baudoin lives in Sulphur and she is still in awe at the aftermath of Laura. The storm packing a bigger punch than expected.

Baudoin said, "It was coming faster than we thought it was going to be."

Baudoin, her daughter and two other women were sitting on the sofa when they got a feeling they needed to move and move quickly.

"There was water coming down in little sheets. It's never done that before, they're not thick windows, but that's never happened before," Baudoin said. "The curtains were moving. It wasn't windy, but they were moving."

Baudoin says they then heard a hum and sheltered in a bathroom, covering themselves with pillows and blankets.

"The house shook, but then it was a different movement," she said.

Once the roof came off the home and the eye of the storm was passing over, everyone was able to quickly run to a neighbor's house to get to safety.

"We looked up and we could see the sky, but we could also see movement," Baudoin said.

She is thankful her neighbor Jarred Abshire got them to safety and took them into his home.

Baudoin said, "We were blessed to have survived it because it was so much worse than we would have thought."

Amid the cleanup process, Baudoin's son flying more than 1100 miles from Milwaukee to be there with his family to begin the cleanup process.

"As soon as I saw her, I dropped everything and gave her a big hug," said Houston Baudoin. "I knew she was heartbroken and devastated. She walked me down here, opened the door and it took me a few minutes to walk through that threshold. This is where I grew up. This was home for 20 something years."

The Baudoins have been able to save family photos and other priceless memories, but the road to recovery is just getting started.

NOTE: The drone footage in his story was provided by Seth Gilmore a Lake Charles based drone pilot. You can find out more about Seth at his website here.
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