Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby reported live from Houma, Louisiana, on Sept. 12, as the long process of cleaning up from Francine began.
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00:00Right now we want to check in with storm chaser Aaron Rigsby, who is live in Homo, Louisiana,
00:04surveying some of that damage. Aaron, I know it's not easy to get around during the height of the
00:10storm, where we had storm surge flooding, we had some some rainfall related flooding, the winds
00:14were coming down with the utility lines down. Today, totally different story. I know there's a
00:20lot to clean up, so what are some of the things that you've seen now without the rain obscuring
00:25your view and you're able to get around more? Yeah, good evening Jeff. There's definitely been
00:31some progress as far as clearing out the roadway goes, but the big problem is going to be all of
00:36those power outages that we've unfortunately been talking about leading up to the storm and after.
00:41Now there is a bit of good news though. Here in Homo, which is one of the more densely populated
00:45areas that was impacted by Francine, this is one of two Walmarts that have been able to open their
00:51doors today thanks to backup generators. However, there's been a lot of people flocking here and a
00:56lot of that food is really starting to fly off of the shelves. There's so many bare and empty shelves
01:01here, but there is a lot of non-perishable food still available for people to stock up on if they
01:06didn't necessarily have enough preparations before the storm came on shore. So they do have some time
01:11to come here, get some food and get some of those snacks for the long haul when the power is
01:16eventually going to be restored. The footage that you shot here, what products are gone?
01:23Was it the milk and the bread or what were you noticing? Lunch meat? There's a lot of frozen food
01:29and lunch meat, so I think people are kind of tired of those chips and canned food. They're looking for
01:34something a little bit different. They also had some ice and coolers available in here, so I think
01:38people are trying to take advantage of potentially getting a hot meal and cooking it over their
01:42grills this evening. The beef, the pork, sausage, not a whole lot of options. Turkey, you got some
01:48turkey options. Well, among all the areas where you've seen a lot of damage, are people out trying
01:53to tarp their roofs in some spots at this point? Are the chainsaws running? What are you seeing
01:58regarding what people are doing in their yards? It's definitely been more of a chainsaw kind of
02:04morning and afternoon for sure. I think those tarps we're going to see a little bit later in
02:07the week once folks can start assessing the extent of the damage. Now, it's been pretty sporadic here
02:13in Houma, which is good news overall, but the buildings that have been damaged have been damaged
02:18pretty heavily. There's been a lot of stations set up for those power crews to work as fast as they
02:23can to restore the power. Mind you, there's over 400,000 people as of last night without power,
02:28so this is going to take some time. And as you can tell, the sun is shining behind me and that
02:32humidity is starting to build back in, so it's going to be really crucial that people don't
02:36spend too much time out in this heat trying to get things cleaned up, make sure they stay hydrated,
02:41and try and shelter themselves away from all this heat until the power is restored and air
02:44conditioning can kick back on and cool some folks down around here. All right, we appreciate the
02:49live look at what's going on in Houma, Louisiana. Aaron Rigsby, Storm Chaser, and today grocery
02:55store correspondent with the latest there in Houma. Thanks again, Aaron. And to Aaron's point, we're
03:01going to be warm out there, highs deep into the 80s back to near 90, not that far from the norm
03:05for this time of the year in parts of Louisiana, but over the next couple days, by Friday and
03:09Saturday, the heat's going to be building back in.