Been busy so I never got around to posting. First off I would like to say I hope everyone fared ok through the floods and that their loved ones ended up safe. Secondly I would like to say, fuck... Nay, FUUUUCCCCKKK! Took me 44 years of living in Louisiana but it finally happened. I got flooded. Not as bad as many did around me (I live in Denham), but damn this shit sucks. I had the two most helpless feelings in my life happen on Saturday the 13th... First, I watched the water come in from 2 different directions and slowly swallow the bottom floor of my house. Second, I had to sit flooded in while I knew my mother, father, and 95 year old grandmother were getting flooded in a neighborhood that to my knowledge in 44 years of growing up in Baton Rouge, had never flooded. My wife's mother lost everything as well. My dad went missing for almost 2 days before we found him by pure luck. Still, there was something good to come out of all of it. I saw people who had never met before come together and help get people from the water. We had 12 people in my house the night it flooded because we told friends to come to us because we were dry at the time. We went and picked up 4 people from a boat they had to ride up range from the Interstate to Florida Blvd at the Albertson's. They rescued two little old ladies who were up to their necks in water on Range avenue and had lost everything so we took them in too. Another couple and their child and dog came to us that was flooded out of their neighborhood in a matter of minutes when they went to the store for last minute supplies.... I mean what are you supposed to do, tell them no? That there's no room? Hell no... I did what I would like to think any Louisianian would do, I told them to come in and get dry, and to make themselves at home. I dragged the grill out and cooked for them until the water came into my house... Then we started drinking.. Alot. Finally around 3am everything got quiet, everyone crashed, and my wife and I stood in about 2 feet of water in our living room and just stared at our house. We had our moment at that point... Not even realizing that my job was 4 feet under, and both of her jobs were flooded and not likely re-opening. We stood there and started planning, thinking, and coming up with a way to get through it. I'm more tired now than I've ever been, I haven't slept right for weeks, I've felt it all by now.. overwhelmed by depression, anger, denial, rage, self pitty, acceptance.. you name it. But every day it's getting a little better. It's going to before it's ok again, but like Louisianians do, we will get through it. On a brighter note, in my darkest hour of this all going on, my brother scored another great autograph for me to add to the collection. Jerry Stovall. He told my brother that he was honored than anyone still wanted the autograph of a washed up old has-been like him... Was the perfect gift at the perfect time. I will say this... Saturday's game for me, like many others I'm sure, will likely be the best motherfucking LSU game I have ever watched in my life regardless of the outcome. Those of you who were flooded or have been in the past, my heart goes out to you. I now understand.
God Bless you and all those others still working your way outta that shit. Someone once asked me the diff between a coonass and a redneck. Easy, coonass will give you the shirt off his back if you are in need. You sir embody the spirit if not by blood.
I was fortunate. Like some others have said, I've lived here most of my life and never saw flooding like this. I actually live in a flood zone, but watched the water take everyone and skip my house. Oh, it got close... another 2 inches up my front stoop and I'd have been dealing with what all my neighbors are dealing with now. I was definitely entertaining my worst fears by Saturday evening. I had taken a long 3/4" dowel I had lying around and marked it off by inches, then stuck it in the ground where I could see it out my front window... so I could more accurately track the rise or fall. Then I sealed myself in the house. I grabbed a caulk gun and some silicone caulk and sealed the bottom and sides edges of my front door and carport door. My logic was... suppose it does come up over the stoop JUST enough to get inside then starts to drop; at least maybe I could slow it down in time to save my floors. Well I don't know if it would have worked because the level started falling sometime Sunday afternoon. Then it rained again, heavily and I thought "Come on God, wasn't it enough already?" - I was thinking about my neighbors and all those folks around me. But even with the rain, the water was going down. And by Sunday night when it looked pretty obvious it was pretty much over (at least for us, we live just south of Zachary, the water seemed to be slowly draining south) I peeled the caulk out of my doors and went outside to get a better look at the damage. I live in a cul-de-sac on a dead-end road. I was trapped in here through Monday night. My only exit down the street was high enough that it would have been about halfway up my doors. I have a 2015 Camaro, it sits LOW. Sure was missing my big truck that weekend! My brother, an Uncle, 2 of my cousins, my sister, and MANY friends got flooded. I don't know anyone in my circle who hasn't been affected by this in some way. My brother is living with me, he's disabled. He was behind on his mortgage already and will probably not be going back to his house. He lost a truck and his car along with quite a few valuables inside his home. He got trapped inside his home during the flood and had to sleep on his pool table. It was Tuesday before my uncle was able to get to my brother's house in his truck to pick him up and bring him to my house. Down here in Louisiana, I witnessed (first hand) neighbors of different races helping each other. Neighbors who barely knew each other helping everyone, even with their own life in shambles. I spent that Friday night and Saturday morning helping my elderly neighbors get on boats that came back here to rescue folks. They tried to get me to leave but I have 4 dogs and decided to hold up here with them. I was lucky. Or, my house was lucky. I'm still helping my brother salvage things from his house. It will be some time before this aftermath has cleared and we can all start to put it behind us. God bless all of you out there who were affected, and especially those of you who have helped in any way.
