Hannah Wallace, Mississippi College Public Relations
DENHAM SPRINGS — Mary Beth Hughes doesn’t recognize Denham Springs after her hometown was devastated by historic flooding.
“Ninety percent of our town was under water,” said the 21-year-old Mississippi College senior. But the amazing thing is her home wasn’t damaged, and never lost electricity.
“God had his hand on our house,” Mary Beth said Wednesday after returning to the Baptist-affiliated university in Clinton. “It’s a miracle.”
Describing the impact of monsoon rains that brought havoc to Bayou State residents made Hughes tear up at times. “Truly this is the greatest place in the world and the people are the greatest you will ever meet,” she said. “We will need prayers. Denham Springs is torn up. But we will recover.”
The storm dumped more than 20 inches of rain on southwest Mississippi, coastal Louisiana, and led to massive flooding in cities like Baton Rouge and Lafayette, Louisiana. It left seven people dead and sparked rescues of more than 20,000 people. The Amite River was among several rivers and creeks pouring over their banks. Motorists were stranded. People climbed trees to get away from rushing waters.
Louisiana’s recovery team dubbed the Cajun Navy was instantly deployed. “We don’t wait for help. We have help” in Louisiana, Hughes said. The Louisiana National Guard, and ordinary civilians risked their lives to offer assistance – from rescue efforts to providing food to shelters, she noted.
Many shelters were packed, so Mary Beth’s mom, Anna Hughes, and her father, Doug, opened their Denham Springs home to three Louisiana families escaping the storm. Anna Hughes is a Mississippi College graduate.
Meteorologists describe the deadly storm as a hurricane without the wind or name. People in Louisiana are drawing comparisons to being slammed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. President Obama signed a disaster declaration. Gov. John Bel Edwards said up to 30 Louisiana counties could fall under the declaration.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency for Adams, Amite, Pike, Wilkinson and other counties in the Magnolia State.
With Denham Springs High along with her elementary school under water and businesses of family friends destroyed, Mary Beth Hughes recounted much of the heartache. “Spiders and snakes are everywhere,” she said. Water got close to her front door, but the scene was far worse for many of her neighbors in the city of more than 10,000 people in Livingston Parish.
With MC classes starting Aug. 24, Mary Beth is making plans to return to Denham Springs to help with the recovery. This week, Mary Beth is seeking help from Pinelake Church and other congregations in the Jackson area. She’s turned to Christian ministries at Mississippi College, social tribes and other student organizations for assistance.
Mississippi College junior Charlton Ellzey, 20, of California experienced first-hand the impact of the powerful storm while passing through the Bayou State. After picking up his Toyota Tacoma truck in Houston, Texas, Ellzey drove through the Baton Rouge area in the midst of the potent storm.
Trying to pull into the parking lot of a hotel he booked in Walker, Louisiana one night, his truck suddenly veered into a ditch. His truck became submerged with rising water up to the front windows. He grabbed a few things on the way out through the back right window and swam to safety. He saved his viola, phone, computer, backpack, wallet and two suitcases. “The truck was totaled. Everything else was ruined.”
But the son of a California pastor made it out alive and that was the important thing.
While Ellzey is presently without a vehicle, the MC student doesn’t lack transportation. The California student drove with Mary Beth to the Clinton campus days ago. After connecting with MC friends, he spent the night at Hughes’ parents’ home in Denham Springs when his hotel temporarily closed due to flooding.
Mary Beth Hughes, who covers MC Choctaws football for the university’s sports media team as a sidelines reporter, captured many cell phone photos of the August crisis in her hometown.
Now, the Laguna social tribe leader begins her senior year at MC with her thoughts on the storm victims hundreds of miles away. She prays, but worries about family, friends and neighbors left behind. “My heart is in Denham Springs and always will be.”
