BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) — Ruth and Delphin Wilburn lost everything, and a year later the couple is still recovering from Hurricane Laura.
“Last year, honestly, we didn’t think it would be anything, and then it was everything,” said Ruth Wilburn.
The couple has experienced their share of hurricanes having lived in Florida for almost 20 years. Following the destruction of Hurricane Laura, the two relocated to Baton Rouge to rebuild their lives. Ruth said many of her friends had to uproot their lives following the damage from the hurricane.
“In 2004, we had owned a very large home and lost it to four hurricanes — direct hits, Charlie, Francis, Ivan, and Jean, in a six-week period of time, we lived in a FEMA trailer on our property,” said Ruth.
While they continue to pick up the pieces, they now must prepare for Hurricane Ida.
“We had a tree through the roof, no mattresses, no chairs, no sofas, we lost the living room, den furniture, beds, clothes… we’re so anxious about this,” said Ruth.
“It almost feels like you’re being chased from place to place, in hindsight that’s really not what happens but that’s the way it feels like,” said Delphin Wilburn.
The couple said losing their belongings is the least of their worries this time around, they’re just grateful to have each other.
“We don’t have a lot to lose this time, we really don’t. We have very little left in our lives of property to lose, that’s what a hurricane teaches you, things are things,” said Ruth.
Delphin said one year later it’s still hard for him to look at pictures of the damage left behind.
“There’s no way you can prepare yourself emotionally for it. I still have that pit in my stomach, no matter what I look like on the outside the inside is completely different,” said Delphin.
“We’ve cried a lot; I’ve cried a lot. He came in and asked, ‘are you okay?’ No, we’re not okay,” said Ruth.
Like many times before they said they’ll get through this.