An EF-3 tornado blew through the small town of Ruston Louisiana in the early morning hours of Wednesday April 18th and left unprecedented amounts of devastation in its wake. Entire neighborhoods had homes torn apart by falling trees, buildings were left without roofs, on campus apartments lost balconies and windows, and some students woke to their cars smashed and stuck under trees.
Since the tornado the city of Ruston has been working to restore power to its community, though many people are still displaced from their damaged or powerless homes.
As reported by The Associated Press, after a helicopter flyover to assess storm damage Ruston mayor Ronny Walker said, “The number of houses with trees completely through them was incredible.” Aerial footage of Ruston was posted to The Advocate, and can be viewed by clicking here.
Bailey Bordelon, an architecture major and freshman at Louisiana Tech, is one of the Ruston residents that was displaced by the tornado. “I got through it by being positive” she said regarding her living situation, “It affected me most mentally. I lost my appetite and I couldn’t sleep. It was so hard because it came at the end of the quarter during finals; I just got assigned an architecture project. But we all went through the tornado together, and everybody’s been really supportive. So many people have reached out to me, I’ve even been offered a grant through Louisiana Tech and my sorority.”
Despite the wreckage left by the tornado, Bailey’s story shows how the community has banded together to restore the town. Ruston and Louisiana Tech University have been working closely together to join volunteer efforts to get the town back on its feet. Big Event is an annual volunteer effort led by the Student Government Association of LA Tech that works to repair the city of Ruston in whatever way is needed. This year, Big Event came when it was needed most.
Early Saturday morning on April 27th, both student volunteers and citizens of Ruston came together to clear debris from the tornado. Big Event participants spent the morning hauling away debris from LA Tech’s softball, soccer, football, and baseball fields while Army reservists helped clear toppled trees from the campus. “A lot of progress was made today in clearing debris from our campus thanks to an army of enthusiastic volunteers, a battalion of the National Guard, a fleet of lift trucks, a Cajun Navy, Farm Bureau providing food, and a special Mailman (Tech alum Karl Malone) driving a Cat,” said LA Tech president Dr. Les Guice on his Facebook page.
On Friday May 3rd, Guice posted another Facebook update with good news for Ruston. “Wednesday’s Day of Giving for our university was a huge success with approximately $1.25M raised from alumni and friends to support campus initiatives and disaster relief.”
Despite the significant damage sustained by Louisiana Tech’s as well as the Ruston community, this storm has shown our community that the way to overcome tragedy like this is to join together. “I think there’s a lot of hope we can take away from this experience, just seeing how the community is rallying together,” said SGA president Matt Flynn. Whatever the future holds for Ruston, our town has demonstrated that resilience and constant support for each other can carry us through these trying times.