A lot of families in the community of Sulfur abided by the mandatory evacuation order. Jamie Wooster believes doing so saved her life.
So she’s saying, okay maybe naying, “thank you” to her saviors of the storm. “Bugs, Izzy, Belle, and Whiskey,” said Wooster, who’s ridden horses all her life.
If it wasn’t for her family’s horses, she admits she might not have left. “If I would have had no pets and just myself, I probably would have stayed,” she said.
Now that she’s seen the twisted trees and mutilated metal on her property, Jamie is glad she left. “My awning, it’s in my front yard now,” said Wooster.
Even their journey home Thursday morning to find out what got devastated by Hurricane Laura was a tricky one, partially because high horse trailers and low hanging cables just don’t mix. They had trouble on I-10 too, with fallen trees covering the interstate for miles. “Squeezing through some tight spots where trees were down on the road,” she explained.
With devastation at every turn, the back roads proved just as difficult. “It ended up being a total of 5 hours getting home instead of two and a half,” said Wooster.
Now as the long recovery begins, you can guess who will get first priority. “Thank God I’m alive and so are my animals. That’s the only thing that matters,” she said.
Then she and her family will turn to help their neighbors with thankfulness in her heart. “Whoever has the least damage, you’re on the back burner. Whoever’s got more, that’s who we’re going to help first,” said Wooster.
