Louisiana s timberlands remain littered with trees that Hurricane Laura either snapped like toothpicks or yanked out of the ground by their roots as easily as a gardener pulling weeds, wiping out $1.5 billion in timber sales in the state s largest agricultural sector. In a matter of hours Hurricane Laura wiped out an entire year s worth of production, said Buck Vandersteen, who said the only comparable damage during his four decades leading the Louisiana Forestry Association was from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The timber industry has a $13 billion annual input in the Louisiana economy from the landowner to logger to industry production, Vandersteen said. This really did a number on us.