Getty A sign at a Lake Charles Wendy's was destroyed by Hurricane Laura.
Hurricane Laura, a powerful Category 4 storm that was nearly a Category 5, made landfall near Cameron, Louisiana around 1 a.m. Some storm chasers were located in nearby Lake Charles, where their camera feeds were focused on a Wendy’s building. People on the Internet became obsessed with watching the Wendy’s store, until the store’s sign finally succumbed to the powerful winds.
Texas Storm Chasers’ Video Focused on Wendy’s for a Time
In Lake Charles, Louisiana, Texas Storm Chasers had a feed focused on the nearby Wendy’s for a time. Here, you can watch a video showing the Wendy’s facing hurricane-force winds, while someone standing directly below a shaky Wendy’s sign records the scene. At one point, you can see cars trying to navigate the winds and rain, and then everything goes dark. As this was recorded live, there is some profanity. The video starts a little later in the feed, so you may want to go back a bit to catch the interesting scenes before everything went dark.
Another Video Captures the Moment the Sign Fell
A video from another angle catches the moment the sign fell. Marissa, who shared the video, wrote: “That @Wendys sign just got destroyed. Prayers for everyone in it’s direct path.”
The original video came from Reed Timmer’s live stream. He’s on location.
Here’s a screenshot of the sign, lying on the ground destroyed. Now people are tagging Wendy’s Twitter account to let them know what happened.
Here’s a photo of the downed sign from another angle.
Here’s another photo. Collin Landry wrote: “And the Wendy’s sign on @ReedTimmerAccustream just went bye bye. Lasted much longer than I expected #Laura”
Reed Timmer has been providing live streams on Facebook off and on throughout the storm’s arrival and landfall. As of the time of this article’s publication, he was still streaming live, focusing on the Wendy’s where he was parked for protection from the storm. This stream below showed the Wendy’s sign falling live as it happened.
Some viewers said on social media that Timmer may have left his car while the storm was passing over, but left the video running. This was later confirmed.
One person said they had visited that Wendy’s before. Christopher Bannan wrote: “My wife and I grabbed food from this @Wendys on our wedding night cause neither of us got to eat anything at the reception.”
Here’s a closer photo:
Many People Were Streaming the Storm Tonight
WXChasing has another live stream that you can watch, although this one isn’t showing the Wendy’s. They’re traveling through Lake Charles as of the time of publication, and it’s a fascinating video that you’ll definitely want to spend time watching.
Meanwhile, Stephanie Abrams from The Weather Channel is providing periodic live updates on Instagram.
Mark Sudduth, Greg Nordstrum, Mike Farrow, and Brent Lynn are live streaming at the HurricaneTrack YouTube channel. One of their videos is below.
Jeff Piotrowski, a storm chaser, is periodically live streaming from the Louisiana region. You can follow him here.