High winds toppled a large tree onto a house at S. Main and Snoddy in Marksville last Wednesday night, pinning the occupant inside. City police officers and firefighters were able to enter the house through a back door and rescue the man. Entergy employees also assisted at the scene. Fire Chief Jerry Bordelon said the man had no obvious serious injuries but was taken to the hospital by ambulance to be checked out. The home sustained significant damage. {Photo by Tiffany Trichell}
Avoyelles hit with two storms in one week
Another storm packing high winds and dumping several inches of rain tore across the parish this past Wednesday night. There were no reports of additional flooding associated with that event.
The mid-week rainstorm came on the heels of the previous Sunday’s “super storm” that dropped up to 12 inches on parts of the parish within three hours.
There was wind damage reported in Plaucheville, the Bayhills and Hessmer. Several trees were knocked down across the parish. One fallen tree crushed a house in Marksville, pinning the occupant inside until city police and firefighters arrived and freed him.
At least one house in the Bayhills sustained minor wind damage to its roof.
The homeowner said it sounded worse Wednesday night than it actually was when the roof was inspected the next day.
“It was ‘boom, boom, boom’ and then part of the roof blew off,” the homeowner, who asked not to be identified, said. “It’s not something I would want to live through again.”
It appears some shingles and the tin under the shingles were affected. There was apparently no leaking into the house as a result of the damage.
Lisa Moreau of Evergreen said she believes a small tornado came through, knocking down a tree in her yard.
“The house shook and I thought it was going to carry it away with me in it,” she said. “It was very scary, but fortunately there was no structure damage.”
Avoyelles Office of Emergency Preparedness Director Joey Frank said the roof was blown off of a vacant store building in Hessmer.
Several power lines and trees were downed by the wind in Plaucheville, Frank said.
Frank said Wednesday’s storm did not produce the volume of rain in as short a period as did the Sunday storm.
He said the parish had discontinued its sandbag operations in connection with the April 30 flooding, but would be monitoring the situation to see if the Wednesday rain resulted in any threats around the parish.
Five schools were closed last Thursday -- Avoyelles High and Sacred Heart in Moreauville, Plaucheville Elementary and St. Joseph in Plaucheville, and Avoyelles Public Charter in Mansura.
Wednesday’s weather event left an average of three inches of rain across the parish, KLIL’s Louis Coco reported. The hardest hit area was the Plaucheville-Goudeau-Bayou Jack communities, where about 4.5 inches fell amid high winds.
The rainfall totals were divided between one storm system that came through the parish Wednesday morning and the “grand finale” that came in Wednesday night, Coco said.
According to rain gauges Coco uses for his weather report, Marksville-Blue Town had 3.5 inches, Simmesport had 2.3, Moreauville (KLIL) had 2.7, Bunkie had 3.5, Cottonport had 3.0 and Hamburg had 4.0.