Trees responsible for damage, death

• By BOB ANDERSON
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: Sep 3, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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DENHAM SPRINGS — One of the numerous trees that crashed into homes during Hurricane Gustav killed a 45-year-old woman, authorities said Tuesday.

Trees also tore down power lines, blocked roads and caused more property damage than any storm in Livingston Parish history, said Ronnie Cotton, the director of the parish’s 911 system. More than 80 percent of the parish remained without power Tuesday afternoon, Jason Ard of the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office said.

The parish’s only hurricane-related death came Monday afternoon when a tree fell on a mobile home in Robin Wood subdivision, Ard said.

Sharon McNealy, 10002 Little John, died when an oak tree fell on her mobile home, Joe Harrell of the Livingston Parish Coroner’s Office said.

No one else in the residence received serious injuries, authorities said.

In one stretch of four houses in Plantation Estates, a subdivision just south of the city, three of the homes had roof damage from falling trees.

Jan Pierce said she knew immediately what had happened when a thud signaled that a tree had smashed into her house as she worked in the kitchen late Monday.

What frightened her was the safety of a baby sleeping in the part of the house where the tree hit. As it turned out, the tree did extensive damage to the empty bedroom next to where the child slept, she said.

“This all can be fixed,” said John Pierce before climbing back onto his roof. “The important thing was that nobody was hurt.”

Also Tuesday, Parish President Mike Grimmer said a contract has already been signed for debris removal.

Hurricane Gustav spared Ascension Parish a great deal of structural damage and flooding, but left it suffering — like most parishes in south Louisiana — from the loss of electrical power.

“It may take weeks to get the electrical grid working,” Rick Webre, Ascension’s director of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said Tuesday.