PINEVILLE, La. — A fleet of bucket and utility trucks line streets throughout Central Louisiana, all trying to clean up the debris and restore power to thousands after several tornadoes struck the area Monday.
"One of my windows where I was working at, the pane blew out and the curtain just started flying," says Alexandria resident Undreka Spearman, who was working from her home on Woodlawn Drive when the storm hit her neighborhood.
Spearman described the experience, "Oh it sounded like, I mean it was just like pounding, it was like woomp woomp woomp. It was pounding like up against the house, it felt like the house was shaking,"
Her home was damaged after a large tree fell on the roof. It was much of the same throughout the rest of the city of Alexandria. A gas station and several surrounding buildings on a major highway in the city were completely destroyed.
The city of Pineville also felt the effects of those storms. Thomas Smith, who works at a gas station in a hard hit area of the city, said, "the sound was like a train coming through." He was behind the counter when the storms rolled through and said customers ran to the drink coolers to escape the danger. While Thomas escaped unharmed, some of his friends weren't so lucky.
"I've got another friend of mine that lives probably a fourth of a mile away from here that's got a tree limb on the end of her trailer. Me and some friends of ours are gonna go over and try to cut it down this evening," he explained.
The recovery process is likely to be a long one for those affected. There is still no word on when power might be fully restored or when displaced residents might be able to get back to their homes.
