MARRERO, La. — A year ago several tornadoes touched down across Southeast Louisiana. Trent Theriot's was home when the tornado hit, and his house was in the path of the storm.
WWL Louisiana's Eleanor Tabone interviewed Theriot after the storm passed, a year after the storm she caught up with him to talk about life after that historic weather event.
On some borrowed chairs, Theriot and Eleanor sat on the grass where there was once a house.
"It's weird to see an empty lot," he said. He went on to say, "I kinda miss the neighborhood, miss the little house."
The 2022 tornado is a weather event he says is one he simply couldn't forget even if he tried. "Never forget that day, coming back from practice with Tulane. It was about 4 o'clock in the evening and I turned the TV on."
That tornado barreled its way toward his house. "All of a sudden within 10 minutes it was here, right here on my front doorstep, coming through the house it was crazy."
The rumbling roar of that tornado etched in his memory, "Sounded like a locomotive, a freight train coming through, it was the weirdest sound I never want to hear again. I thought I was going to have a heart attack just from the sound."
He says he knew he had to get to a safe place inside, "I said no, I better stay here in the living room, and then I said no, I better get in the closet, and thank god me and the dog got in the closest, soon as I got in the closet and closed the little closet door, it went right through the front door of the house."
The force was strong, it lifted up the whole house's foundation and shifted it, "The pressure in the house, it built up and blew like a bomb."
A few doors down a house, split in half during the storm, remains. Theriot said, "I still think about what happened during the tornado, some days and nights it hits me."
For 17 years, he called his house on Allo Avenue home, now plans are in the works to rebuild in this exact location. Theriot says he's, "Looking forward to rebuilding, hopefully everything comes true."
While his home is gone, he was able to salvage one very prized possession, the angel which stood by his mother’s gravesite, which was untouched in that storm.
Maybe it was an angel looking down on him, protecting him, keeping him safe whilst chaos ensued outside that December day.
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