Short version: 3 feet of water in house, everyone OK.
Long version:
On Wednesday, Aug 29 Isaac was approaching and the winds picked up enough to be exciting. Anyone that has seen a 100 mph gust blow through the trees knows what I mean. We had lost power the previous day so the generator was running the fridge, a TV, and the window unit. That night I heated up some shrimp creole on the propane burner so we could have a hot meal by candlelight. There were 5 of us, my wife, my 2 kids (24 and 18) and my daughter’s roommate from college taking refuge with us. During the previous night it was gusty enough to snap my neighbors trees, the top branches landing on my truck parked in the driveway, trapping it in place (no damage to truck, but immobilizing it).
Sometime around 9PM on Wednesday my wife reported that the toilet was no longer flushing. We had been without water since the power went out, manually filling the toilet tank from the previously filled bathtub, but now the sewers were backing up. This should have been my first warning, I have never had the sewers backup in this house during that last 25 years no matter how hard it rained.
Around midnight on Wednesday I noticed the drainage ditch in front of my house was full. We have a levee surrounding the subdivision and pumps move water out into the adjacent swamp. A full ditch means the pumps are overwhelmed, but I have seen that many times before. Five minutes later the water is halfway up my lawn – this is bad, the only other time I've seen that is when the levees were topped. Five minutes after that water was at foundation – Panic.
I alerted everyone in the house they that had five minutes to grab some clothes and get out – we were leaving. Well, there was chaos, we had to get the two dogs loaded, the cats stayed behind because they could climb to escape the water. I had to locate my pruning shears and stand in two feet of water in my driveway clipping away the branches of my neighbor’s fallen tree so I could get the truck out.
The evacuation took more like 15 minutes but 5 people and 2 dogs made it out. Left behind were 3 cats, a potbellied pig, a 2012 Mini Cooper, and a 1994 Ford Mustang. Of those left behind only the cats survived.
I drive west 60 miles to Baton Rouge (through a cat 1 hurricane) only to find BR locked down tight, so I continued on to Lafayette where we spend the night in a hotel.
Returning To La Place the next day I found my house inaccessible by anything but boat. So I dropped off the family with a friend that would let us stay with them and I returned to the neighborhood and waded through a half mile of waist deep water to my house. The plan was to rescue any animals left alive with a homemade pirogue I had at the house. I found the 3 cats on top of the cupboards, scared by well. The pet pig was not so fortunate.
The next day I went to Cabala’s and bought a 12-foot Jon boat. I made 3 additional trips to the house by boat to salvage clothes and anything else I could. On Monday the water was low enough to get a pickup truck to the house (still 2 feet deep in the street). On Tuesday the cleanup began. As of Sunday the house is gutted 4 foot down – all drywall out – studs exposed – sprayed with a 50% bleach solution for mold.
Prior to Sunday we were under what I would call Martial Law, The department of Homeland Security was in charge, every cop car had a Humvee following behind it with MP’s. A 10PM-6AM curfew was in effect. Looting has occurred by seems to be minimal. Many of my neighbors had to be rescued by boat as the water came up.
There is some good news however – I pulled the boat out of the marina and it is fine. When this is all over I can still go sailing.
My wife is depressed over the whole thing, I’m looking at it as a fresh start – I like new sheetrock and fresh paint, but what a way get it.
Long version:
On Wednesday, Aug 29 Isaac was approaching and the winds picked up enough to be exciting. Anyone that has seen a 100 mph gust blow through the trees knows what I mean. We had lost power the previous day so the generator was running the fridge, a TV, and the window unit. That night I heated up some shrimp creole on the propane burner so we could have a hot meal by candlelight. There were 5 of us, my wife, my 2 kids (24 and 18) and my daughter’s roommate from college taking refuge with us. During the previous night it was gusty enough to snap my neighbors trees, the top branches landing on my truck parked in the driveway, trapping it in place (no damage to truck, but immobilizing it).
Sometime around 9PM on Wednesday my wife reported that the toilet was no longer flushing. We had been without water since the power went out, manually filling the toilet tank from the previously filled bathtub, but now the sewers were backing up. This should have been my first warning, I have never had the sewers backup in this house during that last 25 years no matter how hard it rained.
Around midnight on Wednesday I noticed the drainage ditch in front of my house was full. We have a levee surrounding the subdivision and pumps move water out into the adjacent swamp. A full ditch means the pumps are overwhelmed, but I have seen that many times before. Five minutes later the water is halfway up my lawn – this is bad, the only other time I've seen that is when the levees were topped. Five minutes after that water was at foundation – Panic.
I alerted everyone in the house they that had five minutes to grab some clothes and get out – we were leaving. Well, there was chaos, we had to get the two dogs loaded, the cats stayed behind because they could climb to escape the water. I had to locate my pruning shears and stand in two feet of water in my driveway clipping away the branches of my neighbor’s fallen tree so I could get the truck out.
The evacuation took more like 15 minutes but 5 people and 2 dogs made it out. Left behind were 3 cats, a potbellied pig, a 2012 Mini Cooper, and a 1994 Ford Mustang. Of those left behind only the cats survived.
I drive west 60 miles to Baton Rouge (through a cat 1 hurricane) only to find BR locked down tight, so I continued on to Lafayette where we spend the night in a hotel.
Returning To La Place the next day I found my house inaccessible by anything but boat. So I dropped off the family with a friend that would let us stay with them and I returned to the neighborhood and waded through a half mile of waist deep water to my house. The plan was to rescue any animals left alive with a homemade pirogue I had at the house. I found the 3 cats on top of the cupboards, scared by well. The pet pig was not so fortunate.
The next day I went to Cabala’s and bought a 12-foot Jon boat. I made 3 additional trips to the house by boat to salvage clothes and anything else I could. On Monday the water was low enough to get a pickup truck to the house (still 2 feet deep in the street). On Tuesday the cleanup began. As of Sunday the house is gutted 4 foot down – all drywall out – studs exposed – sprayed with a 50% bleach solution for mold.
Prior to Sunday we were under what I would call Martial Law, The department of Homeland Security was in charge, every cop car had a Humvee following behind it with MP’s. A 10PM-6AM curfew was in effect. Looting has occurred by seems to be minimal. Many of my neighbors had to be rescued by boat as the water came up.
There is some good news however – I pulled the boat out of the marina and it is fine. When this is all over I can still go sailing.
My wife is depressed over the whole thing, I’m looking at it as a fresh start – I like new sheetrock and fresh paint, but what a way get it.
