Hurricane Laura struck a Confederate monument in Lake Charles, La., Del – just two weeks after local officials voted to keep it in place.
When the storm came ashore early Thursday morning with 150 mph wind, it tore through buildings, cars, trees and power lines.
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It also knocked down the statue of a Confederate soldier from the Defenders Monument of the South outside the Calcasieu courthouse, reports the Lafayette Daily Advertiser.
The statue depicts a young Confederate soldier with a flag over his left shoulder. After the storm, it was on the grass along with trees nearby, as seen in photos posted on social media. The storm caused the soldier to bend, dive and sideways.
“Can confirm, the Confederate statue in Lake Charles that many have wondered about is gone, apparently a victim of Hurricane Laura,” tweeted Andrea Gallo, a reporter for The Advocate, a local newspaper.
The police jury of the parish of Calcasieu voted on August 13 10-4 to keep the statue in place amid a national pressure to remove Confederate monuments and statues. The jury is equal to legislators as well as municipalities in other states.
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There is an ongoing petition from Change.org calling for the removal of the entire monument with more than 2,000 signatures.
People walk past a destroyed building after Hurricane Laura died in Lake Charles, Louisiana on August 27.
(ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images)
The statue was dedicated in 1915 in honor of Confederate soldiers from the surrounding community and parishes. An archive photo of the ceremony shows early cars parked on both sides of the street and a crowd on the sidewalk of the courthouse.
Local authorities called for public comment on the statue in June and received more than 900 responses.
“Of the total responses, 878 were against moving the monument,” Calcasieu Parish Administrator Bryan Beam told the Daily Advertiser. “And 67 were for moving the monument.”
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It is also not the first time that storm winds have damaged the monument. It collapsed once before in 1995, according to its supporters. It was repaired and reinforced.
At 5 a.m. ET Thursday, Laura was a tropical storm about 80 miles northeast of Shreveport, La., Howling to the valleys of Ohio and Tennessee, moving north-northeast at about 15 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
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Flooding, heavy showers and tropical wind gusts began to buffalo parts of Arkansas. Tropical storm warnings were in effect in northern Louisiana, southern Arkansas and the western edge of the Mississippi. Tornadoes were possible from central and eastern Arkansas to Mississippi through Thursday night, according to the weather service.
