A New Orleans woman was killed and two others injured when lightning struck on or near their tent at the T-Bois Blues Festival in Larose, authorities said Sunday (March 18). 
 
 Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre identified the dead woman as 28-year-old Jacqui Stavis, a massage therapist from New Orleans. Webre said Stavis was found unresponsive after the lightning strike occurred Friday around 10:05 p.m. Stavis was pronounced dead Saturday at a Lafourche Parish hospital, Webre said. 
 
 Two other unidentified New Orleans women who were in the same tent were injured and hospitalized. A 30-year-old woman remained hospitalized Sunday in Larose, while a 24-year-old woman more seriously injured was transported to University Medical Center in New Orleans, officials said. Webre also said a large Labrador dog in the tent with the women was killed in the incident. 
 
 Investigators learned the three women had retreated into a small personal tent during a thunderstorm near the festival grounds, Webre said. After the lightning strike, the sheriff said, Stavis was unresponsive and her two friends had injuries associated with electric shock. 
 
 An attendee said festival organizers were not allowing new tents to be set up Saturday. The three-day festival, headlined by guitarist Anders Osborne, ran Thursday through Saturday. Staged at the site of an alligator farm, the festival has come to be known in recent years as the "Cajun Burning Man." 
 
 Balloon Chain at TBoiS Posted by Jacqui Stavis on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 
 
 It is beyond comprehension and utter sadness that one of the brightest lights in the universe is no longer shining on... Posted by Nola Bunarchy on Saturday, March 19, 2016 
 
 I opened Facebook this morning to find tons of messages to Jacqui Stavis. I started reading them and it hit me that she... Posted by Matthew L. Crowson on Sunday, March 20, 2016 ||||| New Orleans transplant killed by lightning strike: ‘She just dove into the culture' of city 
 
 New Orleans transplant killed by lightning strike: ‘She just dove into the culture' of city 
 
 On Saturday, Jacqui Stavis, a New Orleans massage therapist, became the nation’s first lightning fatality of 2016, according to National Weather Service records. 
 
 Friends described Stavis, 28, as a joyful, petite sprite who loved music, art and New Orleans. She died at Lady of the Sea General Hospital in Cut Off one day after lightning struck her campsite at the T-Bois Blues Festival in Larose. 
 
 Longtime WWOZ Radio program director Dwayne Breashears knew Stavis through a tight-knit group of New Orleanians who travel each year to the Burning Man festival in Nevada. 
 
 “We are all just numbed by it,” Breashears said of Stavis’ death, adding that it seemed she’d been in New Orleans all of her life, though she grew up in New England, New York and Wisconsin. “She just dove into the culture of New Orleans, just became a part of it. She just wanted to do positive things here.” 
 
 Bethany Bultman, of the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, described Stavis as “a force for good” who had put down roots in a city she had long admired. 
 
 More On This Topic Woman killed, 2 injured after lightning strikes campsite Friday night at Larose music festival 
 
 Bultman, a friend of Stavis’ grandmother in Provincetown, Massachusetts, said that even as a teenager, Stavis would immediately listen to any New Orleans CD or read any New Orleans book that Bultman suggested. 
 
 “She loved the culture of New Orleans; she couldn’t get enough,” said Bultman, who wasn’t surprised when Stavis moved here with her boyfriend, musician Jake Gold, after the couple graduated together in 2009 from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. 
 
 A few years later, when Bultman reigned as queen of the Krewe du Vieux parade in 2013, she wasn’t surprised that Stavis was one of the first people she saw in the crowd. “Jacqui embraced everything and she participated and she was everywhere,” Bultman said. 
 
 Friday’s lightning strike injured two other women, ages 24 and 30, who had sought shelter from a severe storm in the same small tent with Stavis. One woman was transported to University Medical Center in New Orleans, while the other remained in a hospital not far from the festival, according to a statement by Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre. 
 
 Others who spent the night in tents on festival grounds were shaken by how hard the storm hit and described winds, rain, thunder and lightning so ferocious that people on opposite ends of the same small tent couldn’t hear each other even if they shouted. 
 
 After receiving a call about the injuries shortly after 10 p.m. Friday, Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies, volunteer firefighters and paramedics went to the scene and found Stavis unresponsive and the other two woman suffering from electric shock. All three were taken to a hospital. 
 
 A large Labrador dog also died during the incident, Webre reported. 
 
 No cause of death was available for Stavis. 
 
 However, National Weather Service alerts note that 10 percent of lightning strikes can result in death, often from cardiac arrest or irreversible brain damage. Though the chance of being hit by lightning in a given year is less than 1 in 1 million, it does happen regularly. Over the past 30 years, the United States has averaged 49 reported lightning fatalities each year. 
 
 The low-key, three-day T-Bois event calls itself a blues festival, though it also features other types of music. It offers home-cooked Cajun food, catfish, crawfish, beer and camping for all ticket-holders and is held on an alligator and crawfish farm owned for more than a century by the family of festival producer “Alligator Mike” Falgout, who modeled the festival after large crawfish boils hosted by his family. 
 
 Falgout did not return messages left about the incident. 
 
 New Orleanians who have attended T-Bois describe it as a relaxed event run largely by local volunteers. Two small stages mostly feature acts who play some variation on the blues; it is closed out each year by New Orleans guitarist Anders Osborne. 
 
 Children and families often mill through the grounds, and many people camp there overnight. The capacity is limited to 1,200, and motorized vehicles are prohibited. 
 
 An area of the site, the Burning Village, is reserved as an arts village modeled after Burning Man. Each year, participants like Stavis create special, often large-scale art, including a giant sculpture that is burned during the last night of the festival in a controlled fire watched by local firefighters. This year’s sculpture was of a 30-foot alligator wielding a guitar. 
 
 Stavis’ brother, Erick Yingling, recently visited her in New Orleans. He said his sister had created a broad, de facto family that went beyond actual kin to include “musicians and misfits, entrepreneurs and artists, community activists and attorneys.” 
 
 Now, he said, that entire community was devastated by its sudden loss. “Jacqui was our heart,” he said. 
 
 “Jacqui will be missed by many, many people, because she got along with everyone. I can’t tell you how much we’ll miss her,” said her grandmother, Barbara Rushmore, 91, of Provincetown, who said she sent love to the two women who were injured in the incident. She expressed hope that her granddaughter would be buried within visiting range of her, perhaps in the cemetery that edges the family home in Provincetown. ||||| One Dead, Two Injured Following Lightning Strike at Larose Music Festival 
 
 Sheriff Craig Webre reported one woman has died, and two others were hospitalized after a lightning strike Friday night at a Larose outdoor music festival. Jacqui Stavis (age 28) of New Orleans was pronounced dead at a local hospital on Saturday. Two other females (ages 30 and 24), also of New Orleans, were also injured in he incident. 
 
 Shortly after 10 p.m. on Friday, March 18, deputies received a call that three people were injured after a lightning strike at the T-Bois Blues Festival grounds. Deputies, volunteer firefighters, and EMTs responded to the scene to assist and found Stavis unresponsive, along with two other females who were injured. All three were transported to the hospital for treatment. Stavis was later pronounced dead on Saturday. The 24-year-old victim was transported to University Medical Center in New Orleans while the 30-year-old victim remained at a local hospital. A large Labrador, which was with the females, also died in the incident. 
 
 Investigators learned the three women had retreated into a small personal tent on the festival grounds during a period of severe weather. Following a lightning strike, Stavis was unresponsive, and the other two had injuries commonly associated with electric shock. ||||| A float rider tosses beads during the Krewe of Bacchus Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Latest on Mardi Gras celebrations that end with Fat Tuesday, the culmination of the Carnival season (all times local): 
 
 11:23 a.m. 
 
 Police in the Alabama beach town of Gulf Shores say a car participating in the city's Fat Tuesday parade accidentally plowed into a band, leaving three young people in critical condition and eight others with less-severe injuries. 
 
 City spokesman Grant Brown tells The Associated Press that the band had just entered the parade route Tuesday morning when a car behind the group lurched forward into the group. 
 
 Brown says the vehicle struck multiple people, injuring 11 in all. Details on the most severe injuries weren't immediately available. 
 
 Brown says there is no indication the crash was anything other than what he calls a "horrific accident." Brown says he's not sure whether the band was from a school in Gulf Shores or elsewhere. 
 
 Video and photos from the scene show emergency workers helping the injured on the main highway running toward the beach. 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:20 a.m. 
 
 Candace Crawford, a New Yorker who has lived in New Orleans for three years, wore bright leggings and a black shawl from which a grinning skull nestled against her left cheek. 
 
 Skeleton hands emerged as if one arm was around her neck and the outer at her waist. 
 
 "This is my little skull and bones guardian, and this is his little friend, "she said, while pointing to a skull near her waist. "Everyone's so colorful at Mardi Gras. I said, 'Oh. I'm going to darken it up." 
 
 ___ 
 
 11 a.m. 
 
 Although clarinetist Pete Fountain died last year, Pete Fountain's Half-Fast Walking Club strutted from Commander's Palace restaurant to the French Quarter on Tuesday, tossing beads and doubloons to recordings of his music. 
 
 A banner bore a photo of Fountain showing his eyes closed and hands folded in prayer. 
 
 That was the only solemn note. Club members were decked out from hat to shoes in nearly fluorescent spring green. 
 
 ___ 
 
 10:30 a.m. 
 
 The sidewalk along St. Charles Avenue near Canal Street barely had room for pedestrians. Either there were two rows of chairs or a row of chairs and ladder seats for small children with ice chests and portable benches along a building wall. 
 
 Elaine Thomson of Silver Spring, Maryland, in a group of eight, says she'd been there since 7 a.m. Tuesday. The 48-year-old Thomson's group included two "Mardi Gras virgins" whom she'd met during Day's Bacchus parade. 
 
 Melinda Zetrouer (ZET'-roh-uhr), whose chair was in front of Thomson's, had arrived at 5:45 a.m. and got the last four front-row spots. 
 
 The 56-year-old Zetrouer said she couldn't count the years since her parents began taking her to parades rather than dropping her off at her grandfather's house. 
 
 Thomson says, "This is my 23rd Mardi Gras. Every year they do it bigger and better." 
 
 She says she'd go back to her hotel after the Rex parade if she could get across the street. She wasn't sure whether she'd be able to do so before the truck parades began. 
 
 ___ 
 
 10 a.m. 
 
 Costumes, costumes and more costumes. 
 
 And the costumes and creativity were on display Tuesday as hundreds of people gathered in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans for the St. Anne's parade. 
 
 Gabrielle Begue describes her costume as "shrubs, greens, topiary" although she conceded that the leaves festooned around her body were a bit unruly to be called topiary. 
 
 Begue and her husband, Erik Winkowski, were dressed as what could best be described as large bushes put together with fake ivy and the liberal use of a glue gun. 
 
 Begue said with all of the year's heated political commentary they wanted outfits that were "full whimsical." 
 
 The St. Anne's parade is a walking parade that goes from the Bywater and Marigny neighborhoods into the French Quarter and features people wearing an eclectic mix of homemade costumes. 
 
 ___ 
 
 9:501 a.m. 
 
 Jim Segreto of New Orleans was a photo magnet with his Trump's wall costume: blue sateen pants, an Uncle Sam hat and a cardboard box marked with black lines for cinderblocks. 
 
 A computer printed label read, "Trump's $26 billion wall. Mexico offers 'nada.' We're stuck with the bill." 
 
 He says, "Unlike Trump's plan, it only cost me about 26 cents." 
 
 Segreto says he doesn't always wear a costume for Mardi Gras. 
 
 He says, "This is a political year. This year I had to have something that made a statement." 
 
 ___ 
 
 8:25 a.m. 
 
 A half dozen pirates on the ferry from New Orleans' west bank sliver were heading across the Mississippi River to join a much bigger crowd on the city's east bank. 
 
 They were all active duty or retired military and families, heading to an annual Navy League breakfast called the Krewe of Eggs. 
 
 Charlene Wenrich, wearing an orange-red wig under her tricorn hat, said the group chooses a costume theme each year. "Last year was Harley. This year it's pirates." 
 
 Gerry (GAR'-ee) Leonard says pirates made for a much easier costume than motorcycle gang members: "You just throw on an earring and you're good to go." 
 
 ___ 
 
 8 a.m. 
 
 The 30 or so people taking the 7 a.m. Tuesday ferry to Canal Street includes a couple of groups in tutus and a half-dozen pirates. 
 
 Craig Channell (shuh-NEL') says, "this is the one time of year people can act like fools and get away with it." 
 
 Channell, his wife, Darlene Channell, and friend Dian Walsh are visiting from Tampa, Florida. Host Bill Tucker is pulling a wagon holding a big cooler and four roll-up chairs. 
 
 Tucker says the cooler holds water and soft drinks. All agree that it's too early for drinking anything stronger. 
 
 With three of the four wearing tutus, Tucker is accessorized with a wide studded leather belt. Craig Channell's costume consists of a jester's hat. He jokes that his tutu is in the wash. 
 
 They went to the glitzy Endymion parade Saturday. Channell says Tampa's Gasparilla parade cannot compare. 
 
 ___ 
 
 7:45 a.m. 
 
 The port city of Mobile, Alabama, is transforming itself into one big parade route for the climax of Mardi Gras season, Fat Tuesday. 
 
 Government offices and many businesses will be closed as parades roll almost continuously through the city starting Tuesday morning. 
 
 The weather is supposed to be good, and tens of thousands of people are expected to line parade routes trying to catch colorful beads, Moon Pies and Mardi Gras trinkets. 
 
 Alabama parades also are planned in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach on the Baldwin County side of Mobile Bay. 
 
 New Orleans gets most of the crowds and attention around Mardi Gras, but Mobile bills itself as having the nation's oldest Mardi Gras celebration. 
 
 The Christian season of Lent leading up to Easter begins Wednesday. 
 
 ___ 
 
 2:35 a.m. 
 
 Thousands of people are expected to throng the streets for Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans. 
 
 Fat Tuesday is the culmination of the city and region's Carnival season. 
 
 Some of the biggest parades will take place along the St. Charles Avenue parade route. 
 
 Families, tourists and locals generally set up their chairs and ladders early to get a good seat for catching the trinkets thrown by riders on the floats. 
 
 In another part of the city, people dressed in elaborate costumes will take part in the St. Anne's parade, an eclectic walking parade. 
 
 At the stroke of midnight, police on horseback will do a ceremonial clearing of revelers on Bourbon Street to mark the formal end of the Mardi Gras season before Lent begins Wednesday. ||||| Officers aggravated "fake cop" may be abusing public trust Posted: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 7:22 PM EST Updated: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 6:52 AM EST 
 
 A Biloxi woman was arrested on Sunday on one count of DUI, 2nd offense, according to Gulfport Police Chief Alan Weatherford. 
 
 A Biloxi woman was arrested on Sunday on one count of DUI, 2nd offense, according to Gulfport Police Chief Alan Weatherford. Read more on our Gulfport community site... Copyright 2012 WLOX. All rights 
 
 A Georgia man has become the third case of necrotizing fasciitis to make headlines in recent weeks, just as two women are being treated for the condition in southern hospitals. 
 
 (RNN) - A Cartersville, GA, man has become the third case of necrotizing fasciitis to make headlines in recent weeks, coming just weeks after a 24-year-old Georgia woman lost her foot and both hands 
 
 UPDATE: A Mid-South mother has been banned from Facebook for the photos she posted of her newborn son. 
 
 (WMC-TV) - More than 1,000 Action News 5 Facebook fans are rallying around a mother who feels Facebook is discriminating against photos she posted on the social media network of her son. Grayson James 
 
 WLOX News has learned a news conference will be held on Monday morning to announce the Gulf Coast Boaters Rendezvous is returning to South Mississippi. That event used to bring hundreds of boaters to the shores of Ship Island for a day of music and merriment. 
 
 WLOX News has learned a news conference will be held on Monday morning to announce the Gulf Coast Boaters Rendezvous is returning to South Mississippi. That event used to bring hundreds of boaters to 
 
 Pascagoula police told WLOX they have arrested two male suspects believed to be involved in a shooting at 3G's Discount Tobacco and Beer gas station on Sunday. 
 
 Pascagoula police are investigating a shooting at a gas station Sunday afternoon. Authorities said, a man was shot multiple times at 3G's Discount Tobacco and Beer gas station on Telephone Road, around 
 
 One person was injured, families were evacuated and US 190 is shut down at Bueche Road between Port Allen and Erwinville due to a chemical fire. 
 
 One person was injured, families are being evacuated and US 190 is shut down at Bueche Road between Port Allen and Erwinville due to a chemical fire. 
 
 Family and friends are mourning the loss of a Perkinston teen who died Friday night after officials say he got behind the wheel drunk. Nineteen-year-old Grant Lowery Hickman wrecked his truck just about a mile from his home on Wire Road just east of Parker Road. 
 
 Family and friends are mourning the loss of a Perkinston teen who died Friday night after officials say he got behind the wheel drunk. Nineteen-year-old Grant Lowery Hickman wrecked his truck just about 
 
 Sheriff Chuck Mayfield says gang activity caused the unrest at the privately-run Adams County Correctional Center. A 24-year-old prison guard from Meadville was killed. 
 
 Following fatal riot, Adams County sheriff says they have "total control" of prison. 
 
 A Picayune woman faces vehicular homicide and reckless driving charges following an accident on I-59 shortly after 1 a.m. on Sunday, according to Louisiana state police. 
 
 A Picayune woman faces vehicular homicide and reckless driving charges following an accident on I-59 shortly after 1 a.m. on Sunday, according to Louisiana state police. Officials said, 51-year-old Carol 
 
 Authorities are searching for a suspect, they said, may have caused three vehicles to catch fire after reportedly crashing into them with his vehicle on Saturday shortly after 4:30 a.m. 
 
 Authorities are searching for a suspect, they said, may have caused three vehicles to catch fire after reportedly crashing into them with his vehicle on Saturday shortly after 4:30 a.m. Lt. Shannon Massey 
 
 As the search continues in North Mississippi for a double murder suspect, some South Mississippi police departments are telling officers to be sensitive to public worry about traffic stops. 
 
 In recent days, two people have been found shot to death in or near their vehicles. A 74-year-old man on Interstate 55 in Panola County and a 48-year-old woman on Highway 713 in Tunica County. 
 
 Authorities believe the killings could be at the hands of someone posing as an officer pulling people over. 
 
 On Tuesday, the D'Iberville Police Department told officers to be patient during traffic stops because with all the news coverage about the highway murders people may be a little hesitant to pull over, especially for unmarked cars. 
 
 D'Iberville Police Captain Clay Jones said, it's frustrating to know someone may be abusing the public trust since officers work so hard to earn. 
 
 "The trust that we hold so dear to us," said Jones. "Really it concerns us so much that we want to let the public know what to do on these traffic stops." 
 
 When traffic stops are made by unmarked cars, many departments take extra care to help drivers feel more comfortable. 
 
 "We instruct our investigative units, our people that drive unmarked cars, that if they are going to have to stop a vehicle that they call for a marked unit," Jones said. "We clearly display our badges. We clearly wear police uniforms and shirts, but we go that extra step to make sure they understand that we're police officers and everyone is going to leave there safely." 
 
 Harrison County Sheriff Melvin Brisolara said, while some people may feel officers using only marked cars would be safer, unmarked cars also play an important role in law enforcement. 
 
 "We have to be able to use unmarked vehicles to be able to gather the evidence that we need on some of these criminals out there especially in narcotics cases,"said Sheriff Brisolara. "We can't all be driving around in Crown Victorias with tinted windows and everything else sticking out like a sore thumb." 
 
 Officers said it's upsetting when someone poses as an officer to commit crimes. 
 
 It's very aggravating because it's law enforcement's reputation on the line," said Sheriff Brisolara. "When you have the bad guy out there abusing it. Yes. It puts a blemish on us that we have to overcome." 
 
 Officers gave tips for if an unmarked car tries to pull you over or if it's at night in dark secluded area and you cannot tell if the car is marked or not. 
 
 1. Turn on your hazard and interior lights to acknowledge that you see the officer. 
 
 2. Drive slowly to a well lit area where people are around. 
 
 3. You can also call 911 and talk to a dispatcher who will know if the traffic stop is legitimate. 
 
 Copyright 2012 WLOX. All rights reserved. ||||| Liam Casey, The Canadian Press 
 
 
 
 
 
 The deaths of a 52-year-old Toronto woman and her 36-year-old American boyfriend who had been missing for almost a week in Belize has been ruled a homicide by local police. 
 
 The bodies of Francesca Matus and Drew De Voursney from Georgia were discovered by local authorities in a sugar cane field in Chan Chen Village in the country's northern Corozal district, near the Mexican border on Monday afternoon. 
 
 The couple had been missing since last Tuesday. They were last seen leaving a local bar around 11 p.m. Dozens of Canadian and American expats were involved in the search, scouring beaches, waterways and brush around Corozal where Matus owned a home. 
 
 On Sunday afternoon, Matus' white Isuzu Rodeo SUV was located in a sugar cane field near the village of Paraiso, also in Corozal. De Voursney's brother, David De Voursney told The Canadian Press that Matus' vehicle was found about 15 kilometres from the bar. 
 
 Belize police Det. Zamir Noh said the bodies were discovered late Monday afternoon in another sugar cane field "nowhere close to the truck." He said autopsies were being conducted Tuesday. 
 
 Investigators found the couple's hands bound in duct tape and the autopsy determined they were strangled to death. 
 
 'She loved it there and felt safe' 
 
 Friends and family said Matus and De Voursney had been dating for several months. 
 
 Matus was scheduled to return to Toronto last Wednesday, but when her friend, Joe Milholen, arrived at her house to take her to the airport, her car was gone and the house, which she had adopted as her second home, was locked up. Milholen said he later found her packed suitcases, passport and travelling money inside the house. 
 
 Matus had been in Belize since December, said her cousin Ivana Pucci, enjoying life on her waterfront property. She used to spend winters in the central American country and return to the Toronto area for summer and fall to be with her mother and her two twin sons, aged 22, Pucci said. 
 
 "She loved it there and felt safe," Pucci said. "She did tell us it was lawless there, but she felt safe in her little community." 
 
 'She did not deserve this' 
 
 Her boys, brother and mother are grieving together in the Toronto area, Pucci said. 
 
 Matus grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. as part a sprawling Italian-Canadian family, Pucci said. She moved to Toronto after college and became a mortgage broker, which she still did for half of the year. She loved the water and boating in Belize, she said. 
 
 "She was 52 in a 35-year-old body," Pucci said. "She really was such a beautiful person -- both inside and out -- and she did not deserve this," Pucci said. "Nobody does." 
 
 Pucci didn't know much about Matus's relationship with DeVoursney, but said she appeared to be happy. 
 
 "They both will be missed immensely," said friend Nancy Rifenbark who was one of the last people to see the couple before their disappearance. 
 
 'He's a real adventure boy' 
 
 In Georgia, De Voursney's mother, Char, said she learned about her son's death from the U.S. embassy in Belize. They told her the pair had been murdered and found with duct tape around their wrists, she said. 
 
 "I'm not able to really do anything, kind of just sit and think and cry and that's all I'm capable of at the moment," she said. 
 
 Her other son, David, was at the Atlanta airport Tuesday morning with De Voursney's best friend, Brandon Barfield, waiting to board a flight to Belize. 
 
 "He's going to go bring my boy home," Char De Voursney said through tears. 
 
 Drew De Voursney was a big man with a big heart and a big smile, his mother said. The six-foot-six former marine had overcome post-traumatic stress disorder while serving two tours in Iraq, she said. 
 
 About four years ago, he bought a piece of property with Barfield in Belize -- with nothing on it -- and went down in December with the idea of starting his own dive company, his mother said. 
 
 "He's a real adventure boy, that's what I call him, my adventure boy because he's done so many different things," Char De Voursney said. 
 
 'I've dreaded news of his death' 
 
 De Voursney went to college in North Carolina on a soccer and academic scholarship, but never finished. 
 
 "Then 9/11 happened and he went straight into the marines," she said. 
 
 He ended up going to Afghanistan for two years after he left the marines as a contractor to help soldiers learn how to use technology on the battlefield. 
 
 "I've dreaded news of his death, but that was when he was in Iraq and Afghanistan," Char De Voursney said as she sniffled. 
 
 She said her son was having trouble getting work in Belize, so he decided to return home. 
 
 "He was supposed to come home next week and was signed to start school with his brother where he was going to learn to operate heavy machinery," she said. 
 
 "Now he's coming home in a way I've always dreaded." 
 
 With files from The Canadian Press
– When the weather got bad at Louisiana's T-Bois Blues Festival on Friday night, Jacqui Stavis, two other women, and a Labrador retriever sought shelter in a small tent. But tragedy struck when lightning hit the tent, killing the 28-year-old and the dog and injuring the other two women, the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office says in a statement picked up by BuzzFeed. The other two women, ages 30 and 24 and also from New Orleans like Stavis, were hospitalized with "injuries commonly associated with electric shock." Stavis, who grew up in New England, New York, and Wisconsin, had always been fascinated by New Orleans, and moved there in 2009, friends tell the Advocate. "She just dove into the culture of New Orleans, just became a part of it," one friend says. "The Falgout Family is deeply saddened by the tragic event that occurred this weekend at T-Bois Blues Festival," festival organizers posted on Facebook Sunday. (The festival is held on an alligator and crawfish farm owned by the Falgout family, and "Alligator Mike" Falgout produces the festival.) "Every attendee of this small festival is part of the T-Bois family, and we feel as though we lost a family member this weekend. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Stavis family and all those who love Jacqui." Another post on the page notes that Stavis changed her cover photo to a scene from the festival (it appears to be from a past year's festival) while she was in attendance this year. NOLA.com rounds up other Facebook tributes to Stavis, who worked as a massage therapist.