Residents recover after storm damages neighborhood Thursday night
WASHINGTON, La. (KLFY) -- Residents in Washington are recovering after Thursday night's thunderstorms downed trees and left them without power throughout the night.
"Transformers were blowing, things were popping everywhere on that end where they were doing the trees," two residents Steven Thibodeaux and Barbara Thibodeaux said. "As soon as they would get it on, it would pop and kick off again."
The Steven and Barbara Thibodeaux said they initially looked forward to getting rain in the area, but things took a turn when the winds got stronger.
"The winds got kind of rough, but we never heard anything on the inside," Steven Thibodeaux said. "Then the power went out. Our daughter was next door."
"I had my lantern to go and let her know what was going on," Barbara Thibodeaux said. "And when I came out, I turned my lantern and when I got closer the tree was split in four or five places."
As the Thibodeauxs noticed the damage in their front yard, Barbara Thibodeaux said she checked the neighborhood watch page to see damages getting worse down the road.
"There was one tree, then there was two trees, then there were up to four or five trees," Barbara Thibodeaux said. "One of the neighbors actually posted they came home to see two or three trees down, they had to start moving because they couldn't get to their children. They got it cleared out. That went on until 5:30 this morning."
As the neighborhood and other residents in Washington continue to work on removing fallen trees and enjoy having their power back on, the Thibodeauxs remain grateful the damages were minimal, and their neighbors are safe.
"It was kind of a dangerous thing too, you know," Barbara Thibodeaux said. "But I have a nephew that's a high-liner and I told him if all we lost was electricity and a little bit of sleep, we're so grateful that they didn't lose lives or homes or anything like that."
"Now it's clean up time," Steven Thibodeaux said.
Parish President Jessie Bellard said there were no reports of structure damage in the remainder of the parish, and all power should be back online.