LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - Hurricane Laura set back education across Southwest Louisiana. Today, schools and universities are still bouncing back.

Richard Rhoden, Interim Director of Facilities and Plant Operations at McNeese State University, described the destruction that was done to the campus.

“It was just hard to take, it really was,” Rhoden said.

The road began with COVID. Schools shut down in March 2020, and Hurricane Laura struck before classes resumed. With 97% of facilities damaged, families were told classes would indefinitely remain remote.

Dr. Jason Vanmetre, Calcasieu Parish School Board Superintendent, shares how much progress has occurred since the storm, for example, at W.W. Lewis Middle School.

“Drove up and down Beglis (Parkway) for a long time, you saw plywood on t

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