by Sean Doherty, Student Reporter
IOWA, La. — In the early morning hours of Aug. 27, Hurricane Laura smashed into southwestern Louisiana’s Gulf Coast.
Lake Charles, Louisiana, a city of 80,000, took the brunt of the Category 4 storm, now recognized as one of the most powerful U.S. systems on record. Winds of up to 150 mph conjured up tornadoes. Those winds, mixed with torrential rainfall, produced a storm surge with waves between nine and 12 feet tall, the highest reaching 15 feet. Although the actual surge fell five feet shorter than predicted, the water was more than enough to flatten anything in its path. The area remained dangerous even as the storms passed on.
Black smoke could be seen rising from a nearby chemical plant.
Northwestern Oklahoma State University alumnus Maverick Harper lives in the town of Iowa, eight miles east of Lake Charles. Harper was traveling out-of-state when the storm passed over his house.
“I was actually at a rodeo in Alamosa, Colorado, but my whole family went to Marshall, Texas,” Harper said. According to CNBC, 580,000 coastal residents were ordered to evacuate. The Harpers loaded up their trucks and trailers with their horses and roping stock and evacuated to a family friend’s ranch to wait out the storm.
Harper was born in Iowa and lived there until he was 13 years old. He moved to Stephenville, Texas, to attend high school. He moved to Alva in 2014 and attended NWOSU for five years, majoring in business. Harper competed as a member of the NWOSU rodeo team for four years and served as the assistant coach for one. He represented the NWOSU rodeo team at the College National Finals in 2018 in both the calf roping and team roping events.
In the spring of 2019, Harper moved back to Louisiana. Harper and his older brother offer roping lessons when they aren’t roping competitively or helping produce rodeos for their family’s rodeo production company.
The family business, Harper & Morgan Rodeo Company, was started in 1958 by the brothers’ maternal grandfather, James Harper, and his best friend, Ralph Morgan. It grew to become one of the biggest rodeo production companies in the southeastern United States. Harper plans to run the company someday.
Thankfully, Harper said, all of the livestock from Harper & Morgan were safe in Waskom, Texas. The facilities back in Louisiana were not so lucky.
“(Hurricane Laura) tore down the whole calf barn, and then it tore off all the tin on the horse barn,” Harper explained. “So we’re using a lot of pastures right now, and we’re all living in our horse trailers.”
Right now, Harper’s main tasks are cleaning up debris and piling up destroyed metal for FEMA to collect. Then the rebuilding will begin. Harper said his insurance will pay for about half of the repairs, enough to replace the tin roofs. As bad as it sounds, the damage could have been much worse, he said.
“It is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute, catastrophic damage that we thought was likely,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said. “But we have sustained a tremendous amount of damage.”
“What happens in hurricanes is they have pop-up tornadoes and winds,” Harper said. “So, one house can be destroyed, and the house right next to it can still be standing. That’s kind of what we have. My grandparents’ house is fine, and then our business offices got torn down. Our covered arena is still there, and then my uncle’s house was leveled. I don’t know how, but the arena looks like there wasn’t even a storm. So it’s just kind of hit and miss.”
The Associated Press reported 16 deaths in Texas and Louisiana as of Aug.
29. More than half died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to the unsafe operation of generators.
According to CNBC, more than 875,000 people are without power, and the Louisiana Department of Health estimates 220,000 people are without water as of Aug. 31. Repairs to these services could take weeks to months to complete.
Edwards called Hurricane Laura the most powerful hurricane to strike Louisiana – even stronger than Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 storm when it made landfall in 2005. Although Katrina did not affect Iowa like New Orleans to the east, Hurricane Rita, which came less than a week later, devastated the Lake Charles area.
Harper believes Lake Charles was more prepared this time around.
“(Hurricane Rita) was worse because nobody thought it was going to hit (Iowa), so nobody was prepared,” Harper recalls. “So, this time, everybody had generators and stuff. Everybody was kind of ready. (Hurricane Laura) tore down about the same amount. Like, it was the same destruction. But everybody was more prepared this time because we knew it was going to hit.”