Lake Charles (US): Four members of a Louisiana family were killed and a fifth was critically injured. This happened when a generator leaked carbon monoxide into their home. The incident happened hours after the Louisiana family survived ‘Hurricane Laura’ which spewed deadly winds and storm.
Rosalie Lewis, 81, decided to shelter with her husband and three other relatives in her Lake Charles home. She took the decision as the Category 4 storm battered the coast in the early hours of August 27. Hurricane Laura brought 150-mph (240-kph) winds and a storm surge as high as 15 feet (4.5 meters).
The five were unable to evacuate because of health conditions that made travel difficult, ‘The Advocate’ quoted other family members as saying.
The home where they took shelter had also withstood ‘Hurricane Rita’ in 2005’. This time also it suffered little damage and Rosalie Lewis and her family survived Laura.
But emergency crews arrived after the storm passed to find her; her daughter, Kim Evans, 56; her son-in-law, Chris Evans, 61; and her brother, Clyde Handy, 72, dead.
A generator placed in the garage filled the home with carbon monoxide during the night, according to authorities and relatives. They had left the garage door open for ventilation, but winds from the storm likely blew it closed, allowing the poisonous gas to seep into the home, Rosalie’s son, Lyle Lewis, 55, said.
“They made it through the storm and there was a freak accident,” relative Patrick Perry told ‘The Advocate’.
Rosalie’s husband, John Lewis (Sr), 84, survived and was taken to a hospital in critical condition, relatives said. He remained on life support Wednesday.
Twenty-one deaths in Texas and Louisiana have been attributed to the storm, and nearly half were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from the unsafe operation of generators, according to authorities.
Rosalie was a well-known member of her Lake Charles neighborhood and had served as the first Black female postal service supervisor in southwest Louisiana, family members told news outlets. John Lewis (Sr) drove trucks for 40 years.