Louisiana
How to safely enjoy Louisiana summers
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – The sweltering heat and humidity over the capital region are making it feel like triple digits.
”It’s really important to stay hydrated. I always hydrate before I come, during my walk/run, and afterwards,” said Pam Windham, a runner in Baton Rouge.
Windham is also a nurse who runs two or three times a week, and she’s lived in the Louisiana heat her entire life, so she knows how dangerous it can be.
”Coming out in this kind of heat, I mean, I’ve grown up in it, I’ve done sports my whole life, and I’m still in the emergency room dealing with people that come in and have a heat stroke with temp over 104, 105°,” explained Windham.
Mike Chustz, the EMS Chief at West Baton Rouge Fire Department, says this is nothing to mess around with.
“Untreated heat stroke will result in death almost 100% of the time, so you need to get treatment and get out of the heat before you get to that point,” said Chustz.
Chustz says wearing sunscreen, light colored and loose-fitting clothes, and hats are ways to stay safe in the sun.
They recommend you do outdoor activities in the early morning and the late evening, but if you can’t, Chustz wants you to know what to look for. Signs of heat illness can be leg cramping, lightheadedness, profuse sweating, dizziness, and confusion. If it doesn’t resolve in a few minutes after getting out of the sun and hydrating, call for help.
” Heat-related goes probably to our top three or four calls in the middle of the summer, and we’re just now starting to see it because it’s just starting to get into the mid-90s,” explained Chustz.
While emergency officials warn the elderly about the heat, Chustz says they have been treating more younger people for heat stroke. And the younger they are, the less their body can handle the heat.
”Never leave a child or a pet or anybody in a car when it’s unattended, especially if it’s off, if you shut that vehicle off, everyone comes out,” added Chustz, “in a car parked in the summer, we did it in July one year, and it got to be 128° in about 15 minutes in that car. Humans can’t sustain that for a long time, especially infants and small children.”
Experts say ways to remember a child in the backseat are to set alarms or place something in the backseat, like your purse or phone.
Click here to report a typo. Please include the headline.
Click here to subscribe to our WAFB 9 News daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.
Copyright 2025 WAFB. All rights reserved.
Miss Louisiana preliminaries closed Friday with Miss Louisiana Port City sweeping health and fitness and evening wear, and a newcomer earning another night of preliminary wins.
Shelby Bordelon, Miss Louisiana Port City, won health and fitness and evening wear preliminaries. Miss Natchitoches City of Lights Eva Delatte won the talent preliminary.
Miss Heart of Pilot Lauryn Vernon won both the newcomer health and fitness and the newcomer evening wear awards, earning $500 in scholarships. Kelly Lohman, Miss Avoyelles Arts & Music Festival, received the $500 newcomer preliminary talent scholarship.
Other scholarships that were presented Friday night included:
- Women in Business ($1,000 Scholarship): Miss Louisiana Tech University De’Ahmya Whaley
- Women in Education ($1,000 Scholarship): Miss Southeastern Louisiana University Miranda Sensat
- Women in Health Sciences ($1,000 Scholarship): Miss Ruston Emma Calhoun
- Women in Marketing ($1,000): Miss Louisiana Tech University De’Ahmya Whaley
- Women in Mass Communication ($1,000 Scholarship): Miss Louisiana Port City Shelby Bordelon
- STEAM ($500): Miss Ruston Emma Calhoun, Miss Cane River Olivia Grace Dyrek, Miss Monroe Jalia Shepherd
- Champions of Faith ($1,000): Miss Louisiana Christian University Destanee Stewart
- Glenda Moss Memorial Passion for Dance Scholarship ($1,000): Miss Krewe of the Twin Cities Anna Claire Lemoine
- Origin Bank Leadership & Culture ($1,000): Miss Avoyelles Arts & Music Festival Kelly Lohman
- American Heart Association − Raised over $1,000: Miss CENLA Lauragrace Rader, Miss Louisiana Port City Shelby Bordelon, Miss Louisiana Tech University De’Ahmya Whaley
- AHA Winner − Raised over $5,000: Miss Union Parish Hannah Brotherton
- Sharon Turrentine Health Living ($1,000): Miss University of Louisiana Monroe Katherine McCullars
- Community Service 1st Runner Up: Miss Avoyelles Arts & Music Festival Kelly Lohman
Who are the Miss Louisiana contestants?
The Jazz Group consists of:
- Miss Slidell Maddie McMahan
- Miss Spirit of Fasching Caroline Pierce
- Miss Minden Sadie Brown
- Miss Belle of the Bayou Jansen McDonald
- Miss Spirit of the Red Elyce Thomas
- Miss Ouachita Parish Jasmine Henson
- Miss Bossier City Adreaunna Scott
- Miss Heart of Pilot Lauryn Vernon
- Miss Red River City Courtney Patterson
- Miss Lincoln Parish Sarah Cook
- Miss Twin Cities Addison Jackson
- Miss Southeastern Louisiana University Miranda Sensat
- Miss Union Parish Hannah Brotherton
- Miss University of Louisiana at Monroe Katherine McCullars
- Miss Louisiana Port City Shelby Bordelon
The Blues Group consists of:
- Miss Avoyelles Arts & Music Festival Kelly Lohman
- Miss Northwestern Lady of the Bracelet Nilah Pollard
- Miss Pride of Monroe Shelby Weaver
- Miss Krewe of the Twin Cities Anna Claire Lemoine
- Miss Louisiana Christian University Destanee Stewart
- Miss Louisiana Bayou Makenzie Tillery
- Miss Ruston Emma Calhoun
- Miss Natchitoches Parish Hannah Reeder
- Miss Louisiana Stockshow Jacie Brent
- Miss Cane River Olivia Grace Dyrek
- Miss Natchitoches City of Lights Eva Delatte
- Miss Monroe Jalia Shepherd
- Miss CENLA Lauragrace Rader
- Miss Louisiana Tech University De’Ahmya Wiley
Follow Ian Robinson on Twitter @_irobinsonand on Facebook at https://bit.ly/3vln0w1.
That pageant feeds into the Miss Louisiana pageant, which is part of the Miss America system. The winner of Miss Louisiana Saturday night will move on to the Miss America pageant.
Addison’s pageant platform is encouraging girls to build confidence in themselves — Confidence to Career, Jackson said.
“She competed last night for the preliminary in talent and on stage question and will compete tonight in beauty and fitness,” Jackson said.
On Saturday at the beginning of the pageant, the field will be cut to 11 contestants, and then the top five.
“One of the top five will get a crown,” Jackson said.
The preliminary competitions and the pageant will be streamed on MissLouisiana.com and the Saturday pageant will be broadcast live on KNOE-TV.
“They let me see her for five minutes yesterday,” she said. “This is the experience of a lifetime. She is making friendships and relationships that will last a lifetime. We are so proud of her. Addison is such a sweet girl.”
She is the youngest of three sisters, Allison and Anna Claire Jackson.
Angela said her husband, Craig Jackson, is particularly excited and proud of all three of his daughters.
“He’s a great girl dad,” she said. “They think he hung the moon, and he did.”
Louisiana
After redistricting battles, Southern gathers for Juneteenth celebration: ‘Continue the fight’
Hundreds of community members, alumni and students gathered Thursday to observe Juneteenth on the Southern University campus in Baton Rouge.
The theme of the festivities was “celebrating freedom through culture and community,” but weeks after Louisiana’s bitter redistricting battles, the speakers Thursday morning had one message driving their remarks: Get out and vote.
“Freedom does not come in on the wheels of inevitability,” Louisiana Supreme Court Associate Justice John Michael Guidry said to the crowd. “But it takes the prodigious work and the tireless efforts of those who are willing to continue the fight.”
Great Beginnings summer camper Myni, 4, gets a hello kitty face painting during Southern’s Juneteenth celebration on Thursday, June 18, 2026 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Staff photo by Michael Johnson
The speech kicked off a day of discussions and cultural events centered on the holiday of Juneteenth, which commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger brought news of emancipation to enslaved people in Texas more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
Speakers at Southern emphasized the need for protection of hard-won rights for Black Americans in the context of redistricting. The sentiments followed a contentious state legislative session that ended with the elimination of one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
“That Voting Rights Act is under attack,” Guidry said. “There’s voter intimidation, there’s voter suppression, there are voter ID laws and all types of laws and legal decisions that are trying to deny us our right to vote, and we are the ones who have to go forward and litigate these issues.”
The day opened with a libation ceremony and a rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by Southern University student Claire Floyd.
Southern University alumnus Jeanet Cazenave said she felt it was important to celebrate Juneteenth on campus as not only a relative of the first dean of Southern University but also a descendant of the GU272, a group of enslaved individuals who were sold to plantations in Louisiana in 1838 by Jesuit priests to pay the debts of what is now Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Juneteenth “means everything,” Cazenave said. “It means the past, the present and the future.”
-
Seattle, WA2 minutes agoSuarez’s no-hit try ends on Naylor double in seventh, but Boston still tops Seattle
-
San Diego, CA5 minutes agoNeymar expected to return from right calf injury and play for Brazil in World Cup against Scotland
-
Milwaukee, WI10 minutes agoToday’s Summerfest schedule and picks: Saturday, June 20
-
Atlanta, GA17 minutes agoAtlanta Ballet Returns to the Fox Theatre to Present Cinderella for One Weekend Only This Fall
-
Minneapolis, MN20 minutes agoMERAUDER, JUDGE, ARKANGEL and many more announced for Minneapolis’ Snow and Flurry 2026
-
Indianapolis, IN25 minutes agoThird Public Safety Camera Added on Washington Street in Downtown Indy
-
Pittsburg, PA32 minutes agoAnalysis: Most Pittsburgh‑area communities are losing residents — here’s why that might be OK
-
Washington, D.C35 minutes agoTrump’s DC makeover frenzy bewilders locals and visitors: ‘It’s like we’re under occupation’
