ACADIA PARISH, La. (KLFY)– While state officials pray for rain, earlier this week, areas in Acadia Parish saw severe weather that caused high winds and rain.

A couple of homeowners described the moments as extremely scary and said now they’re left with cleaning up.

Sarah Walker said she and her family were sitting by the pool at their exotic animal ranch and were expecting some rain, but instead they got rain with a punch.

“The wind started picking up and next thing we know the cover for our pool got ripped away,” Walker said. “We have a tree that’s down, so I’m not sure exactly what happened, but we had some really significant winds.”

Walker said the wind was so strong it felt like a tornado, knocking over parts of their animal enclosure and turning over their bird cages.

“I was really worried that we had lost some animals,” Walker said. “We have a huge AV area in the back, and when it all settled down, I went to check on them, and we had a lot of overturned cages and birds out.”

Jordan Durio at D.I.’s Cajun Restaurant said she was working when she saw the winds picking up and said she heard a whistle coming from the inside.

“I was mopping everything, and I ended up having to lock the doors because the wind was pushing the doors back,” Durio said. “When I look outside there was buckets flying around, and then I hear a big whistle, a loud whistle coming from inside actually. I didn’t hear from the outside.”

Durio said when the lights went out, the customers had to use the lights on their phones to see.

“They were holding their cameras,” Durio said. “Cause we didn’t have any lights or candles or anything.”

Durio said she has dealt with weather like this before, but not at her job.

“Not while at work. I’ve experienced tornadoes and stuff like that but not here,” Durio said.

Both Walker and Durio said they are happy that no one was hurt during the bad weather.