As many people throughout Lake Charles are cleaning up after the storm, the city's TV station is doing the same.
KPLC's studio received major damage during Hurricane Laura, and now, progress is being made to get their facility back up and running at full capacity.
It was more than 65 years ago that the tower went up and KPLC first hit the airwaves. While the structure has been reinforced since it was installed, Hurricane Laura proved too strong.
A week ago, the tower toppled, crashing into the 7News studio, which was evacuated earlier that day.
While KPLC's team coverage continues with the help of our Gray Television sister stations across the state, crews went to work quickly to stabilize and remove the fallen tower.
"Within 24 hours of the hurricane hitting we already had crews mobilized coming here," said General Manager of KPLC John Ware.
A days-long process, a major portion of the structure was lifted off the KPLC building and placed along Division Street, exposing a gaping hole in the roof of our studio.
"We won't be in the studio for quite some time," added Ware. "Because that's gonna be a complete remodel, we'll have to gut it and do some structural work there. But there are other parts of the building we'll be able to broadcast from."
Then, crews cut away hanging pieces of metal.
"This is the first step in being able to get back to on television. Our broadcast towers are fine, we just need to be able to get this out of our building so that we can re-establish a signal and start getting back to broadcasting on television in addition to our digital platforms."
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