Amid National Crises, Louisiana Mayor Fears His Decimated City Will Be Forgotten

In front of City Hall, a crew shovels through debris, clearing a path to the front door. Bricks and broken glass from office buildings litter downtown. Gas station awnings have been flipped on their sides.

The best news in Lake Charles, La., in recent days: an announcement that 95% of the streets here are just now navigable, nearly a week after Hurricane Laura tore through the region.

"We absolutely need our American brothers and sisters to realize that a great American city had a major blow," Mayor Nic Hunter says. "I am begging, I am pleading for Americans not to forget about Lake Charles."

At the beginning of hurricane season, and in the middle of an election year, a global coronavirus pandemic, protests over police violence, and raging wildfires, Hunter fears his decimated city of 80,000 will be left to recover on its own with the nation already overwhelmed.