Extreme weather struck Monroe last week, causing major damage to homes around Ouachita par­ish and causing many residents to lose power for days. The storm hit the Monroe area on Tuesday, April 26 and took down power lines and trees.

According to an Entergy spokes­person, around 55,000 northern Louisiana customers lost power.

The University of Louisiana at Monroe’s students were away for the Spring Break holiday when the storm slammed heavy rains and strong winds into the area.

However, when students re­turned from the break, many found notes from Residential As­sistants warning them of the pow­er outage.

Jillian Reaux, a speech pathol­ogy major from Port Barre, lives in the on-campus apartments at ULM and came home to a note taped to the refrigerator.

“It said to throw any and all food away because the power had been out for two days. A lot of food my roommates and I had just pur­chased had to be taken to the dumpster,” Reaux said.

Students who are signed up with the Emergency Call Alert System were notified on Tuesday about the bad weather and were advised to seek a safe shelter.