Survivors describe how a tornado tore a path through the Labadieville community

Families ran for cover as unseen forces destroyed their homes, leaving only roaring winds and debris as evidence of nature's presence.

More than 20 buildings were left roofless or destroyed after what witnesses said was a tornado tore through Labadieville on Monday, Jan. 8. A low-pressure system from the Gulf of Mexico surged over the Louisiana gulf coast, bringing 40 to 60 mph gusts. Labadieville felt Mother Nature's wrath between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. when metal and wood bent to her will, forcing families to flee for the night.

"It was seconds. Maybe seven, eight, seconds," Mary Morland of Supreme Road said.

Morland didn't see the incoming chaos, but as soon as she heard the winds' tone change she ran to the front of her trailer to warn grandson. He grabbed their dog and ran to the back of the trailer for the tub. As she followed through the living room, the trailer was hit.

"By the time I got to the living room, this window had busted out. Everything on this wall here is on the other side of the trailer. I had a portable air conditioner, and the glass and the air conditioner hit all right here," she said, motioning to her thigh and leg. "I'm all bruised up, but we lived through it. I'm so grateful for that."

She made it to the back, and the entire trailer fell off its foundation, slamming the family against the back wall and leaving a two-by-four sticking halfway out of the side wall. The winds stopped and the family climbed out of a window and fled to her son-in-law's home next door.

Her son-in-law, Matthew Blanchard, and his wife saw the winds change just before it struck. The night was pitch black, it turned deathly silent, then suddenly he heard what sounded like a train coming.

"We was lookin' out the window, and it was black and then it turned green, and when it turned green we just saw the wind just getting crazy," he said. "We took off to the back, and when we got into the closet the windows were flying in. Peoples' rooves were hitting the side of the trailer."

His home stands with little damage, however his shed is badly beaten.

Following the path of destruction, the next trailer in the path is overturned, and all its contents are spilled against the nearby Labadieville Volunteer Fire Station. Ronald Johnson's home stands just after the fire station in the storm's path. Wood from his shed pierced his roof, but the rest of his home was spared.

Johnson, a former truck driver, said he heard what sounded like four 18-wheelers approaching, and he grabbed his family and fled for the hallways. The home was spared, but his shed, which he calls his man cave, was not.

"If you take about four 18-wheelers, like the turbo is going bad, wide open, that's what it sounded like. Then I heard all kind of boom, boom, and I don't know where that came from, and thunder, it was like transformers going off," he said, describing the sounds he heard from the hallway. "Five seconds, and it did all this here: gone."

Behind his home, his motorcycle and four-wheeler were buried by what remained of a shed. Parked next to his shed is his boat, undamaged and just turned slightly to the side.

According to the Assumption Parish Sheriff's Office the tornado then crossed Bayou Lafourche and headed toward LA 1014. The winds did not spare Cookie's Thrift Shop on LA 1 before it crossed the bayou.

There was nothing left visible of the two sheds to the side of the shop. According to Chelsie Rodrigue, owner of the shop, they were torpedoed through the side, a gaping hole revealed the winds' wrath.

The roof was torn up on Cookie's Thrift Shop. Rodrigue's mother and the inheritor of the title of "Cookie," Joan Burke, sat outside the nearby trailer, taking in the destruction. The shop receives an overabundance of clothes, which are sold as low as $.25.

Burke manages the shop, even after hours, driving to the business to ensure those in need of clothes can get some, even giving them away. She looked at the thrift shop with uncertainty in her eyes, the family had just sunk $40,000 into replacing the roof, and it lay strewn everywhere: across the street, in the side yard, and even across the bayou the metal was wrapped around trees.

"This is just stuff. If I build a building again, everything that's in there will come back tenfold," Rodgrigue said. She then motioned to her mother, "And it's basically from her, helping so many people."

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Labadieville residents describe tornado that tore through community