Four Years Ago, the Water Came Up

 Even though it has been four years, it feel like yesterday.  On Tuesday we had about 3 inches of rain in an hour.  I know we needed the rain and it wasn't going to flood, it still felt like the water was rising.  

Definitely PTSD flashbacks.

I have some photos from that day in 2016, that is our house looking from across the street.  And then photos of us being evacuated by the Cajun Navy with the dogs.  That trailer sitting in our driveway was our home for the next 9 months.

I am so grateful to those who helped us during that time.  Took us in, cleaned us up, fed us, helped demolish the house, helped rebuild the house.  I can never repay those kindnesses.  

Marking Another Event Today

You know what today is?  The second anniversary of the Great Flood of 2016.

My life has changed so much, my house has changed so much.






The house as we evacuated.   The water rose about 6 more inches and then went down pretty quickly compared to most other flood events.  By day three we were able to walk through the house.  Our problem on day two was getting there with the residual flooding in the streets.

We tried to keep the dogs out of the water, since we thought the water would not continue to rise.  We are not in a flood zone after all.

The weekend started with Frank and I deciding to head to Orange Beach AL for our anniversary celebration.   He wanted to ride Skidoos in the Gulf.  You can see the storm coming in as we looked out from our hotel balcony.














The storm gets worse as time goes on.  We are looking west, toward Louisiana.

We decided to come home since it would not stop raining.  And over the next 24 hours, the water rose


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During the night as we looked out over the back yard, it was obvious the water continued to rise.

It was terrifying, just terrifying.











One of my favorite inside photos is of Chloe refusing to get out of her bed as the water rose around us.  We thought the water would stop here.

But it kept rising.

When we evacuated and were picked up by the Cajun Navy, the boat glided down Jones Creek which is usually just a trickle of water down a deep sided canal base.

Here is Chloe trying to figure out where the heck we were going!

We all were thinking that.  

I don't need words to describe this emotion.  The next hours were unbelievable as we searched for a vehicle, a place to stay, even how family members were doing.  Thank goodness Greg and Dee were able to find us.  They graciously offered us and the dogs shelter in the RV in their back yard.  We stayed with them for almost a week.  I will be forever grateful to them.

This is the day we were able to get back to the house.  The darkened bricks are where the water line was.  That is chest high on Frank and he is just under 6 feet.

And this was our home for the next 8 months.

I am so glad the physical part of all this is over.  I will carry the emotional part with me till the day I die.  I still have flashbacks and panic attacks on some nights.  I still have images in my head during moments when the rain is heavy.  And in the midnight times, walking down the darkened hallway brings the feelings of water swirling around my ankles.

From just about any part of my house, you can see where the area from which the water rose.  I find myself casting my eye in that direction often.  So far it has kept its distance.  

I am not sure it will never happen again.  I don't think we can run from it, we didn't expect to flood here in the first place.  I thought we were safe.  

But I can truthfully say, I would not do this again.  Ever.  Under no circumstances, would I put myself through this again.  

We Call Her Just In Time Julie

My Bird Quilt has spent the last few weeks living with Julie of Me and My Quilts at Liberated Bird Camp.  She was teaching a class from Lynne Tyler's Liberated Birds in MO.  

Check out her class peoples here

They also participated in her Trunk Show.  So it got some fine ogling in the country's midsection.  

My Birds arrived home just in time for me to call Sharon and beg her to let me enter them a bit late into the Kaleidoscope of Quilts Show.  Of course, she was persuadable and The Daily Bird is going to hang alongside the fabulous quilts of the Sassi Stripper Guild.

And here is a piece of history.  Do you know what we were doing two years ago?  August 14, 2016 was the FEMA Flood Event.  It is hard for me to believe it has been two years.  I want to say "only two years" but then I also want to say "two years already".  

Not necessarily my favorite photo from that month, but here are a few of the ones that stick out in my mind.

Here is my sweet Chloe riding in one of the boats as we  evacuated down Jones Creek coming from the roads in our subdivision.  We were stunned at this point, having spent the night in the house with the water rising.  

Our worst nightmares.  We never thought our house would flood.  Our families have been in New Orleans for 3 generations, none of them have ever evacuated during any storm ever.  We are were the first.  

And when we left, we left with three bassets and two back packs.  One filled with Frank's important papers and the other filled with dog food and a bowl.  

That is all we took.  Oh, and toothbrushes.  I remembered to bring toothbrushes, no toothpaste however.  Just toothbrushes. 

Here is what my house looked like as we left.  That is my neighbors mailbox.  I am standing on my neighbor's front porch looking at my house.  

I remember feeling nothing.  Just nothing.  And I felt nothing for a long, long tim

The pile of what is left of my house sat out in the front yard until the claw machine came along to take it to the landfill along with all the other houses on the street.  What was left was drained, dehumidified, disinfected and sprayed.

 This was the state of my sewing room when the waters receded.  

Two years ago this month.  What an auspicious August that was.

I am sure glad that is over.  

But I know it is raining somewhere else this month.  And my heart aches for those people.

A Year Ago Today.....August 13, 2016

It is Sunday.  And it is still raining.

 Remember that containment area in the back of my property?  I am actually standing on Dale's yard, my neighbor.

I began to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.  Heck it was no feeling, it was the beginning of an ache that would not go away for nearly a year.

None of us had ever seen the water come up this high.  Surely it would stop raining.  Surely

We did get in the car and retrace some of our steps from the day before.  The water had risen fro the previous day.  And it was into these houses.  

In my own yard, the water was also coming up.

Never, never had water ever come into my yard.  32 years, never had water in the yard.  My stomach would clench every time I looked out.

Still, it was in the back, and no where near the house.  We still did not think it would get any higher.

We were so comfortable with that idea that we did not even discuss it among ourselves.

 Dale and Frank would go out into his yard every hour and plant a stick at the water's edge.  They were marking where it was should it continue to rise.  Every hour they would move the stick closer to our houses.

My stomach hurt.  this is what fear feels like, I thought.

 When the water came past  the deck.

Those words are inconceivable.  Past the deck.

I finally spoke the words.  Do we need to go get sand bags.

That was the first sentence between us.  He said no, we are fine.

That was the second sentence.

When I took this photo.  My knees were barely holding me up.

I think this is when I knew.

But I thought it would just be an inch  or two.

I sat on the sofa all night, waiting.  Unable to do anything to protect my house.  Fighting the waves of nausea.  

Hoping the rain would stop.  By now, I think it had.  But it didn't do any good. 

Let's Talk Flood Insurance

The Federal Government, meaning you, feels so very sorry for those people who live in flood zones.  So they provide them with flood insurance.  It is called NFIP.  National Flood  Insurance Program.  You buy it through a regular insurance company, separate from your homeowners insurance but it is all the same NFIP.  Your costs are supposed to be based upon your risk but people with a home and no income get subsidized.  Totally not fair.  but that is the way we do it in this country, if you are part of the 57% who are on government subsidies, you get a lot of breaks that I work for and pay for.

And they don’t make them move.  I am not talking about like my place but like places that repeatedly flood, yearly even.  

Like my mother’s husband.  Both of whom are gone in the last 2 years.  He flooded several times a year, and got paid each time.  It was how his family of non-working stiffs made money during the year.  Stan's house on Lake Pontchartrain outside New Orleans was 16 feet in the air. 

He paid, get this, $157 per year for flood insurance.  And he was even in a specialized, highly subsidized, frequent flood zone.

 

We live in non-flood zone, with no history of flooding anywhere around here, and we paid $687 a year.  I have no idea what the whole cost would have been to insure Stan's ramshackle cabin, but it must have been pretty steep.  And the government subsidized all the amounts over $157. 

So, what if you don’t have flood insurance and you live in a flood zone or a non-flood zone?  FEMA happens for you.  I pay almost $700 a year, which will probably go to over $3500 in the future, and get to argue with the adjuster and get ignored by FEMA and those idiots who don’t have flood insurance subsidized by the government get money.   what i don't understand is how all these people had mortgagees AND were not required to have flood insurance.  I think they were, and just didn't.  I guess like auto insurance, you can sign up, show proof and then cancel. 

Probably, we don't know  yet, 

not as much as I POTENTIALLY will get, but they also have lots of interaction with FEMA because they are targeted as having no flood insurance.  The first question on the FEMA application is “How much was the gross income on your last year's income tax return?”

The second question is, “Do you have flood insurance?”

You self sort yourself.

Non-flood insurance people are eligible for food debit cards that get monthly refills, some small appliances like a microwave, an oven/stove combination, a bathroom clean-up and replacement and a refrigerator.  A sink but not a dishwasher.  Basic pots, silverware and plates.  

In other words, the necessities that will get them started.  Do you think I have been offered any of that?  

My adjuster told me he didn't want to pay for new granite but would pay for bottom cabinets.  How the heck do you get the cabinets out then?  He also said they would not pay for new silverware, dishes or pots because mine were not "damaged" by floodwaters.

I simply asked him if  he would feed his family on plates that sat in sewerage water?  He shrugged.  

To me it was not an option.