Although many students in Oxford will remember Hurricane Laura’s impact as a rude, ten-minute warning siren at 6 a.m., others were anxiously expecting destruction for their hometowns, hosting their evacuating family and friends and organizing relief efforts for beloved communities.
On August 27, Hurricane Laura made landfall in the United States. It hailed from the Carribean to the Texas-Louisiana border town of Lake Charles, with damaging winds that brought havoc to many surrounding communities.
From there, Laura continued to move across the southeastern United States, seen most apparently in the tornadoes and flash floods extending from Arkansas to the Mid-Atlantic coast throughout the weekend.
Abby Sonnier, a senior public policy leadership major from Lake Charles, stayed up overnight checking in with her parents every hour. She lost contact with them before and after the eye of the storm hit her hometown.
“The Lake Charles I have known since birth will never be there again,” Sonnier said. “(But) we will rebuild. Trust me when I say you’ve never met a more resilient and neighborly group of people, but it will never be the same. Watching this from 450 miles away was hard. I felt helpless watching my community come back home to find out they had no homes left. I cried, a lot.”
After seeing the devastation in her hometown, Sonnier took to fundraising and raised over $500 in less than an hour to benefit Lake Charles.
In the days before landfall, before the public knew what locations would be hit hardest, many students from Texas cities as far west as Houston were expecting to be in the direct path of Laura. Gia Osso, a senior marketing major from downtown Houston, expected the same.
“A lot of people thought that Hurricane Laura was going to hit us pretty hard, but it ended up taking a turn and heading towards Beaumont and Lake Charles,” Osso said, “But I am definitely praying for those affected by Hurricane Laura.”
Taylor Stansberry, a senior communication science and disorders major from New Orleans, hosted a former high school classmate who had evacuated her apartment near Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge after hearing about tornado and flash flood warnings in the area.
“Her apartment at school floods really easily and her roommate last year even had issues with the flooding and her car,” Stansberry said.
Afraid of floods damaging her car, her friend called and asked if she could evacuate to Oxford.
“In less than an hour after she called, she started driving to Oxford.” Stansberry said. Her friend stayed in Oxford for a few days before heading back to Baton Rouge for classes and work.
Abby Newton, a sophomore public policy leadership major from Jackson, recently took a spring break mission trip to Haiti with Pinelake Church. Her mission team, which included students from UM and Mississippi State University, served alongside Hispaniola Mountain Ministries (HMM), a local Hatian ministry that provides education and healthcare to the community. HMM’s facilities experienced significant damage from Laura.
“It was heartbreaking to see these streets and buildings and homes that we had been in not even six months ago just in ruin,” Newton said, “But it was also comforting to know that we had met the people in the community and saw their constant spirit of joy and reliance on the Lord.”
After spreading the word through social media, two friends from Newton’s trip raised $12,000 in two days to rebuild HMM’s facilities. The group plans to return to Haiti in the spring.
