Local counties spared from Laura after spring tornado
Residents in San Jacinto and Polk Counties watched Hurricane Laura closely after areas were devastated by an EF-3 tornado back in April.
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - Hurricane Laura officially made landfall early Thursday morning along the southwestern Louisiana coastline as a category four hurricane. Damaging winds and storm surge slammed the coastline as the storm continued to track north.
Throughout Laura’s duration, the storm was a hard one to pin down in terms of the exact track it was going to take before landfall. As the major hurricane inched closer to the Gulf Coast, many in East Texas wondered just how far west the major impacts of Laura would travel.
For the community around Lake Livingston, many were hoping and praying they wouldn’t be included.
Donny Whitus, a resident of Onalaska, was home when an EF-3 tornado tore through San Jacinto and Polk Counties earlier this year on April 22.
“I got a warning and it said ‘hide.’ And then I felt it coming and we ran,” said Whitus.
The result was catastrophic and heartbreaking. Four months later, shards of metal ripped from buildings are still tangled up in nearby trees. What once were houses, are now large piles of rubble.
“The neighborhood is awful, it’s getting better though, but everything was destroyed. There was total devastation, it was sad,” said Whitus.
Today, Donny is thankful that Thursday morning’s hurricane didn’t leave them with yet, another disaster.
“I can promise you, everyone was worried, because that would be a double whammy,” said Whitus.
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