COTTAGE GROVE, Minn. — Hundreds of thousands of people are still without power and cleaning up after hurricane Laura ripped through Louisiana last week, where it made landfall there as a category 4 hurricane.
Since many people are relying on generators for power, officials say they are seeing an increase in deaths.
Tragically, popular Twin Cities radio host and comedian Sheletta Brundidge lost five loved ones due to carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator while waiting for power to be restored.
"There's two generations of a family that are gone," said Brundidge.
Rosa Lewis, 81, Clyde Handy, 72, Charles Lewis Sr., 84, who died Wednesday, Kimberly Evans, 56, and Chris Evans, 61, died the Friday after the storm hit.
"These are all people who planted seeds in me, from the time I was born, and those seeds are growing now in my life with my children," said Brundidge.
It was less than 24 hours after the storm roared through, Brundidge sent out an all call, and in return got a response from everyone.
"I went to sleep thinking everybody's OK," said Brundidge. She went on to say, "they had one busted window and some damage to the exterior of the home but they were OK, so they made it through the storm just fine.”
Only to wake the next morning, to the reality that things weren't OK. Tragedy struck, in the middle of the night, where her five relatives were sleeping.
"Carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator," said Brundidge. "They left it in the garage, with the garage door open, they did the night before and it was fine well the wind blew the garage door closed…and so that's how the fumes got in the house."
Five lives gone too soon, serving as a painstaking reminder, the next time you decide to fire up a generator.
"Just go ahead and put it outside you know if somebody steals it, somebody steals it. You can get another one," said Brundidge.
Now, left to weather the storm mother nature left behind, Brundidge says if there's any takeaway from all of this, its the fact that happiness is a choice.
"The only reason that our family is still smiling and we still have not loss our joy and we have strength is because we pray and we rely on our faith in the Lord to bring us through," said Brundidge.
Brundidge says the reason why her family didn't evacuate was because her aunt Rosa had a severe case of Alzheimer's, so everyone stayed to look after her.
Funerals are set for Sept. 12.