The tropical storm nobody saw coming: Tropical Storm Olga and its lasting impact on the Gulf Coast
The overnight storm sweeping through the Gulf Coast of Mexico was not a small line of thunderstorms, as citizens in the landfall zone expected it to be. Instead, the thunderstorms were Tropical Storm Olga.
Before its landfall overnight on Oct. 25, many citizens were left in the dark about the tropical storm trekking towards the gulf coast. The projected path showed that Olga would pass directly over southeast Louisiana with bands likely to affect Mississippi, Texas and Alabama.
Tropical Storm Olga carried winds of up to 50 mph and downpours of rain. Tornadoes devastated Alabama and torrential rain flooded parts of southeast Louisiana. As of Monday, Oct. 28, 14,000 people were still without power. On that same day, Tangipahoa Parish had the most citizens without power with more than 5,000 people left in the dark.
The Gulf Coast wasn’t just unprepared: many citizens had no clue they were in the path of a tropical storm. Because of this lack of knowledge and press coverage, citizens across the Gulf Coast did not purchase much-needed supplies beforehand: gasoline for generators and cars, water for days and storage containers to protect personal artifacts from flood damage.
For many of those affected in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama, one question remains: why were residents in the direct path of Olga uninformed about the tropical storm heading for them?
Potential reasons behind the lack of information from news stations may be timing. Friday afternoon, Tropical Depression 17 upgraded to Tropical Storm Olga. This information was released hours before the storm was projected to make landfall on the Gulf Coast. Initial projections showed the storm taking a direct path over southeast Louisiana.
With that in mind, it was unlike most cases assumed with storms surprising residents. Ordinarily, a tropical storm or hurricane may drift far off its projected path and leave residents rushing to deal with the incoming onslaught. In this case, the storm simply formed later than anyone expected hours before Olga would make landfall.
With the news fresh during the afternoon and evening times, news stations did not have enough time to broadcast the news of an incoming tropical storm. Initial reports in an article from Nola.com mentioned the storm around 3 p.m. on Friday. WGNO released an in-depth, online report on projected weather conditions minutes before 6 p.m. CBS published their news article Tropical Storm Olga after 9 p.m. That evening, a mere hour later, Olga was projected to make landfall around 10 p.m.
Hammond local Janet Pershal stated that she was one of many in the projected path without a clue of the incoming storm. “I watch Channel 6 most evenings, but I don’t remember them talking about a tropical storm,” Pershal admitted. “Maybe that night I was watching Family Feud.”
“I didn’t know there was [a tropical storm] until you told me.”
For a forecast only a few hours old, one evening away from her usual news outlets was all Pershal needed to be blindsided. “I didn’t know there was [a tropical storm] until you told me.”
Pershal considered herself lucky for the damages she had. “The water got close to the house, but it just swept up a lot of sticks and [debris] into the yard.”
Another reason for the lack of information may be community-based: most people get their news from word of mouth. In small communities, this practice of hearing the news from friends or family is common. Especially in households and areas where individuals get their news from only one outlet.
Regardless of the surprise, Olga brought, next for the Gulf Coast is the recovery effort. Two tornadoes were confirmed in the Mobile area, and one tornado damaged homes. Entergy and Cleco are continuing to work to bring power back to residents still experiencing outages in Tangipahoa, Jefferson, St. Tammany and many other impacted parishes.
In Louisiana, many telephone poles were destroyed or heavily damaged. Hammond Rural Baptist Fire Captain Brandon Nazworth described some of the damage he had to respond to the night of the storm: “We received calls throughout the night. Trees fell and collapsed roofs.”
Damage from trees was fairly common throughout the storm. Many residents in Hammond mentioned the debris covering their lawns, homes and the streets.
Although Tropical Storm Olga has come and gone, the heavy rainfall it brought continues to leave areas with concerns of flooding.
The Tangipahoa river was under a flood warning until Thursday, Oct. 31. Initial reports cited the end date for the river flood warning to be on Tuesday, Oct. 29, but heavy rainfall extended the warning. This rainfall in the Tangipahoa area started Tuesday morning and lasting through Thursday evening. Concerns rang out that the rain could further dampen inundated areas starting to dry off, but no further flooding resulted from the scattered rainstorms.
After the storms passed, there were recovery efforts to be made: specifically for Southeastern Louisiana University.
Strawberry Stadium was not untouched by Tropical Storm Olga. The damage that it caused opened areas allowing wildlife to take shelter inside during the storm. But one opossum did more than take shelter: the terrified animal ate away at many of the electronics stored in the Stadium.
Nearly all of the speakers had to be replaced after substantial damage. This replacement took place merely hours before the game.
The Southeastern Lion’s first home game since Tropical Storm Olga was one set on a timestamp. To prepare for the broadcast of their game against the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks, the sound technicians scrambled to find temporary sound equipment.
“The sound system in our stadium was blown out by Tropical Storm Olga,” broadcaster Allen Waddell stated during the Nov. 2nd game broadcast. Portable speakers were secured and used for the game until replacements will be installed for Strawberry Stadium.
For Southeastern, the local community helped greatly by coming together and supplying most of the temporary sound equipment.
“Hopefully they’re going to have them installed for Nicholls,” Waddell enthused. The home game against Nicholls State University is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 21. It is the last football game scheduled for the season.
These are just some of the recovery efforts that residents of the Gulf Coast are completing long after Tropical Storm Olga, but with the togetherness of their local communities, many people still impacted will not be healing alone.

