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Popular Houma bowling alley, destroyed by Ida, finds new life

Bowl South of Louisiana grew from a family that is deeply woven into the fabric of Terrebonne’s Cajun culture.

Katie Moore / WWL Louisiana Investigator

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Published: 10:09 PM CDT October 31, 2022
Updated: 5:12 AM CDT November 1, 2022

This story is part one of Katie Moore's two-part series on Bowl South of Louisiana in Houma, La. Part two of this series airs 10 PM on Tuesday on WWL-TV.

When Hurricane Ida churned over Terrebonne Parish for hours, the storm’s high winds, rain, and storm surge pummeled homes and businesses that had been hurricane-tested but stood strong for decades.

The storm ripped apart landmarks for the people of Houma, including a bowling center named Bowl South of Louisiana that sat off to the right on Grand Caillou Road if you were headed down the bayou.

It was a cream-colored, cinderblock building with a corrugated metal roof that housed perfect games and good times for hundreds of bowlers, and the hopes and dreams of its owner, Marie Lirette.

Ida took a bite out of the back wall of Bowl South and peeled the metal roof off like an orange.

“It took my breath away. It was literally a punch without getting punched. It was a punch,” Marie said about how hard it hit to see her business in shambles the day after the storm.

The business she had built with her late husband, Terry, over the decades was gone and her life would never be the same.

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