Grocery store shelves run empty as Louisianans begin cleanup after Hurricane Francine

Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby reported live from Houma, Louisiana, on Sept. 12, as the long process of cleaning up from Francine began.

Transcript

00:00Right now we want to check in with storm chaser Aaron Rigsby, who is live in Homo, Louisiana,

00:04surveying some of that damage. Aaron, I know it's not easy to get around during the height of the

00:10storm, where we had storm surge flooding, we had some some rainfall related flooding, the winds

00:14were coming down with the utility lines down. Today, totally different story. I know there's a

00:20lot to clean up, so what are some of the things that you've seen now without the rain obscuring

00:25your view and you're able to get around more? Yeah, good evening Jeff. There's definitely been

00:31some progress as far as clearing out the roadway goes, but the big problem is going to be all of

00:36those power outages that we've unfortunately been talking about leading up to the storm and after.

00:41Now there is a bit of good news though. Here in Homo, which is one of the more densely populated

00:45areas that was impacted by Francine, this is one of two Walmarts that have been able to open their

00:51doors today thanks to backup generators. However, there's been a lot of people flocking here and a

00:56lot of that food is really starting to fly off of the shelves. There's so many bare and empty shelves

01:01here, but there is a lot of non-perishable food still available for people to stock up on if they

01:06didn't necessarily have enough preparations before the storm came on shore. So they do have some time

01:11to come here, get some food and get some of those snacks for the long haul when the power is

01:16eventually going to be restored. The footage that you shot here, what products are gone?

01:23Was it the milk and the bread or what were you noticing? Lunch meat? There's a lot of frozen food

01:29and lunch meat, so I think people are kind of tired of those chips and canned food. They're looking for

01:34something a little bit different. They also had some ice and coolers available in here, so I think

01:38people are trying to take advantage of potentially getting a hot meal and cooking it over their

01:42grills this evening. The beef, the pork, sausage, not a whole lot of options. Turkey, you got some

01:48turkey options. Well, among all the areas where you've seen a lot of damage, are people out trying

01:53to tarp their roofs in some spots at this point? Are the chainsaws running? What are you seeing

01:58regarding what people are doing in their yards? It's definitely been more of a chainsaw kind of

02:04morning and afternoon for sure. I think those tarps we're going to see a little bit later in

02:07the week once folks can start assessing the extent of the damage. Now, it's been pretty sporadic here

02:13in Houma, which is good news overall, but the buildings that have been damaged have been damaged

02:18pretty heavily. There's been a lot of stations set up for those power crews to work as fast as they

02:23can to restore the power. Mind you, there's over 400,000 people as of last night without power,

02:28so this is going to take some time. And as you can tell, the sun is shining behind me and that

02:32humidity is starting to build back in, so it's going to be really crucial that people don't

02:36spend too much time out in this heat trying to get things cleaned up, make sure they stay hydrated,

02:41and try and shelter themselves away from all this heat until the power is restored and air

02:44conditioning can kick back on and cool some folks down around here. All right, we appreciate the

02:49live look at what's going on in Houma, Louisiana. Aaron Rigsby, Storm Chaser, and today grocery

02:55store correspondent with the latest there in Houma. Thanks again, Aaron. And to Aaron's point, we're

03:01going to be warm out there, highs deep into the 80s back to near 90, not that far from the norm

03:05for this time of the year in parts of Louisiana, but over the next couple days, by Friday and

03:09Saturday, the heat's going to be building back in.