LIVINGSTON PARISH - The Roberts thought a tornado had touched down when a huge tree came crashing onto their home near Denham Springs during Hurricane Ida.

"And when the tree hit, it went like whoomp!" Lily Robert said.

The tree smashed through the side of their house, knocking off the power meter and leaving holes in the walls. The couple had just taken cover when the wind began to blow incredibly hard.

"The next thing we knew, the whole house shook. And when you could see the outside through the walls, we knew something bad had happened," Rob Robert said.

An army of utility workers was in their neighborhood restoring power over the weekend, working 14-hour days restoring power and still removing trees that fell on several houses.

Nearby at Live Oak Junior High School in Watson, more than 70 people are being housed. Some of them arrived right before the hurricane hit,
and they were still checking in on Sunday afternoon.

"We didn't have any lights, and we tried to stick it out for a day or two,
over at my house, but it's so hot, and the kids were so miserable," Ashley Gross of Walker said.

Gross and her two children have been at the shelter for five days and plan on not leaving until their lights are back on.

"It keeps telling me every time I try to call. They say they don't have an estimate on when I'll get my lights on, and they don't expect for it to on tonight," Gross said.

The Roberts have no idea when their power will be back on, but having electricity or not is their least of concerns after what they went through with Hurricane Ida.

"If you believe there's a God, go through something like this and survive it. God is always there," Rob Robert said.

Realizing they dodged a bullet, the Roberts say they plan to evacuate the next time a big storm heads their way.