Storms Ravage Louisiana Tech Campus, Facilities

Louisiana Tech president Les Guice and athletic director Tommy McCleland took time Thursday evening to survey the damage left in the wake of a deadly storm that swept through campus and the surrounding area Thursday morning.

“The good thing is all of our students, faculty and staff are safe,” Guice said. “They weren’t seriously injured, there were some minor abrasions and things due to flying glass. All of them are safe and genuinely in good spirits.”

The campus is currently closed and a number of roads are blocked off due to the storm, which brought high winds and a tornado.

Guice said that assessing the damage was emotional.

“We work every day to try to make this a special place, then you see it get torn apart, it’s pretty traumatic,” he said. “We did have a tornado over our south campus a year or so ago, but it certainly didn’t have this kind of impact,” Guice said. “Ruston has been blessed and we’ve been been blessed today 'cause it’s not more severe.”

Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker also confirmed a mother and son were killed during the early morning storms in Ruston. 

Tweets from @CoryDiaz_TNS showed significant damage to athletics facilities at the school, including the school’s baseball stadium and tennis courts.  

View from the mound at JC Love Field. Not good, folks. @LATechBSB @LATechSports #LATech pic.twitter.com/KuhMIro2SG

— Cory Diaz (@CoryDiaz_TNS) April 25, 2019

Here’s what used to be #LATech’s tennis courts. pic.twitter.com/BZR0tvWWrV

— Cory Diaz (@CoryDiaz_TNS) April 25, 2019