![]() Meteorologist Ben Terry with former KPLC morning show co-hosts John Bridges, Britney Glaser and Candy Rodriguez. After Laura, the city still in tatters, Terry famously quipped that the Weather Channel must have forgotten how to spell Lake Charles based on how quickly it shifted focus to New Orleans. ![]() “He was a fierce defender of this community - because we often get overlooked for Houston and New Orleans when it comes to storms,” said John O’Donnell, executive director of SBP, a local branch of the statewide nonprofit rebuilding homes after natural disasters. Terry was a beloved community figure before the storms, but his commitment to the community, even as the national news moved on and it seemed that help might never arrive in this oft-forgotten corner of the state, cemented his role as Lake Charles’s patron saint. He never did,” said Candy Rodriguez, a former KPLC colleague-turned-close-friend who accompanied Terry on many of his treatment visits to Texas. “A lot of others, including myself, would have thrown in the towel a long time ago. In total Terry, originally from Northern Mississippi, spent over a decade in Lake Charles. Even after his house was destroyed by Laura and his treatment required regular trips to Houston, he stayed. “We’re just as much of a community advocate or a figure in public as a politician.”Īnd while national weather personalities drop in and out as the news moves on, and young talent moves on to bigger markets, Terry stayed. “Whether it’s a Laura, an ice storm, a flood or a tornado - they trust us to get them through that,” Hampton said. Photo courtesy of John Bridges.īeing a weatherman in a community regularly threatened by extreme weather makes for a special role, said KPLC Chief Meteorologist Wade Hampton. Meteorologist Ben Terry, right, with KPLC co-host and sports commentator John Bridges. “He will be remembered as someone who told the truth, someone who was trusted and someone that they’d like to have around,” said KPLC morning anchor John Bridges, who interviewed Terry when he first joined the station more than a decade ago, long before he became a local icon. Votive candles bearing his image were lit in households across Lake Charles when it was announced that, after a years-long battle, Terry would be moving into hospice care. The words “Change the channel then,” his famed response to a Facebook comment deriding his warnings ahead of Hurricane Laura as “promoting fear and panic” emblazon mugs and T-shirts. On Sunday, Terry, whose struggles alongside his fellow storm survivors made him family even to strangers, died. He was 40. Months later, he shared another grim update: He had been diagnosed with cancer. Like many locals, Terry saw his home destroyed by Hurricane Laura. ![]() Terry, sporting a red shirt, gray shorts and defiant look on his face, sitting on the front lawn of his Lake Charles home - or what’s left of it, anyway. There’s a picture of meteorologist Ben Terry that, as soon as you mention his name to any Southwest Louisiana resident, is likely to spring to their mind.
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