nine years ago I survived another flood. Hurricane Isaac. That was tough. That
was really tough. Nine years later I'm surviving another flood. Everything
that I saved from the first flood got destroyed on this flood and then more
because I was recuperating my lifestyle and life and and and things that I do
has changed dramatically in the last nine years and um I've lost so much
that I just it's it's if you don't laugh about it you're gonna break down
crying and anybody that's been through this understands that.
So there are some strong feelings amongst the people in ST john the
baptist parish and I have some strong feelings myself
but I'm I'm surviving through I'm working towards *** happy ending
And water rose to two ft high inside my house. Now what I want you to do is
imagine your house, wherever you live, anybody out there, think about look at
your house and go two ft up and that's the water level. What will you lose?
You essentially lose everything. Then of course contacted my insurance
company.
Mhm.
I got treated so bad
that they cheated me. I'm gonna use that word Cheated me out of $100,000
that they should have paid me more of. We took him to court three different
times one each time in court. But what happens when you go to court with an
attorney, the attorney gets what 33-40% 44%. So I never had enough to fully
recover. So here I am and I'm going not enough money to fully recover from the
last hurricane. It took me nine years, nine years to recover from this.
Finally, this past august I'm going, oh okay, I'm finally recovered now. I need
to get homeowners insurance. I need to get flood insurance because it's time
it's hurricane season. And so I called the insurance company and they said, oh,
you haven't been watching the news, There's *** storm in the gulf. And I
knew right then and there I could not, there's no way of buying insurance
and it hit us at full force and I'm sitting there with no insurance. I mean
just what are you going to do? And you there is you're helpless.
So I walked outside my front door, my garage is on to the right of the door.
That's where the two lakes are lake, more open lake pontchartrain and that's
where the funnel is, where the levees come up, creating *** nice entrance
into my front yard once again. And so I walked outside and I said, wow, it's
getting bad out here. Then I walked out to the end. I looked to my right, I did,
the water did not rise. I saw *** wall of water like *** tidal wave coming in.
I had *** ford explorer. It was on cement, it moved it 10 ft to the side
that is the force at which the water came in. Well when I saw the water I
ran back in and boy, I shut that door and I locked it. That'll keep the water
out. It's called muscle memory. It's just something you do automatically in
*** panic. So I went around the house picking up anything on the floor that
was expensive whether it was heavy or not I had to get it above what I had
assumed the water was going to get up to. And I did. And then the water of
course you you hear this well the weep holes in the house. That's when the
water started piling in and the water was already like halfway up my windows
and it came in at full force. So I said I saved as much as I could I could not
no not with that that little time. I mean because it came up it was so fast
that I saved what I could. Then I went to the kitchen and I created *** video
in the kitchen because the water is coming in and you can actually see it
rise and you see it against my refrigerator, stove dishwasher, my
cabinets, my brand new cabinets that I had custom built by *** friend of mine.
Anyway so I went ahead and made *** video about *** 37 2nd video which I
gave to W. D. S. U. And with full permission to use it as they see fit.
So I then went into the garage by that time the water was waist deep so I'm in
the garage and I'm waist deep and I said whoa! Now it's getting too deep.
So I climbed up the stairs into the attic. I was in martial arts. So I had
one of those pads that was my pillow. And I'm sleeping on plywood in my
garage.
I knew at that time I was going to die I accepted it. I was okay with it. I'm
*** godly man. And if this is when he wants me, I'm ready to go. But I knew I
was going to die because as I'm lying down I could feel the house lift and
then drop lift and drop. Then it would shift to the left and come back shift
to the right and come back all night long. Now the way I thought it was
going to happen, it was it was going to tear off my roof, suck me out. And the
water was already deep outside and I said I'm going to drown and my body if
it's not found well some alligator had *** nice meal. Extra spicy, but ***
nice meal. And uh if they found my body, I just drowned out there. There's no
way I can survive in that wind at that deeper water. What? Good Lord has plans
for me. I guess. In fact I know he does And I'm alive at 7 30 the next morning.
The water starts leaving out the house. And I said, okay Lord let's go. And so
I survived. And now I am still surviving without *** place to live
except where I'm at now. Do you live two months?
All right.
I lived in the jungles of Vietnam. It was just like that humidity is high.
The heat was there anywhere the water touched it left this dark gray mud,
That swamp mud was in there because the water was not clear. It was swamp water.
So all of my floors. So that means that any time my foot hit the ground, I'm in
slippers and I had to kind of clean an area out where I could take my shower
and use the toilet. And with me being 100% disabled with next shoulder and
lower back injury. Um I had to be real careful not to slip and fall, not to
further injure myself, but yet try to make me *** little spot that I can
survive for the first couple of weeks. My family didn't know if I was alive or
dead. I have cousins up in uh Dallas and Kansas city in Kansas and they
called the Cajun navy to see if I'm still alive. I mean and it worked the
Cajun navy came to my house in my house because of the flood. I had 2.5 ft of
water in my house. Most of my neighbors have already sold their house.
I want to get back into my house.
The price of the value is going to go back up again. I'm gonna sell my house
and I'm getting out of dodge, my plans are to move to pick *** human
Mississippi and it doesn't have *** lake and *** funnel leading to my house
so that water will come in and flood my house anymore. I want to I built ***
new life and I almost lost everything again. That's *** lot to ask somebody
by saying, oh give it one more chance, We're going to get the problem fixed.
Uh huh.
First of all, the Corps of Engineers needs to pull their heads out of that
dark place and get *** popping sound because I blame mostly them. We've been
having money for new levies for years, but it seems like the Corps of
Engineers
again, they don't have it together and I don't know why. Well, I know why
politics, I mean and and and egos and things like that. Put your politics and
your egos aside. Think about the people that are being affected. This should
never have happened. Also, who else do I blame? Because I also blame the
politicians in my parish. Why aren't they leaning on the Corps of Engineers?
Why aren't they getting tough some tough love against the Corps of
Engineers, getting them to get off of their cans and get this thing built now,
of course, right after this one, all every all of *** sudden things are
getting cleared up too little too late. And so when do you think you might
finish the levee system?
That is the big question and I'm not, I'm not going to accept two years from
now because another two years, I mean all we need is another hurricane and
I'm flooded again.
And look, don't misunderstand me. I love the american legion and what
they're doing for me and the support, but I want to go home. You know, this
is great. But I want to go back to my own wife
and now we're in hurricane season and it's gonna be *** long scary season.
I've been working with fema.
I was able to scrounge enough money together to get me *** roof. That is my
number one priority. I got *** new roof. All right now. That's going to protect
the inside. But keep in mind, nothing has been done on the inside, nothing
has been removed. Drywall is still in there so far, No black mold, but
drywall is still in there.
Oh, I pray they get the levee built reid, I'm always smiling. I'm always
making jokes about it because if you don't, you're gonna break down crying,
you're going to go into depression. Is it difficult? You bet it's difficult
and the and sometimes I wake up depressed and I'm going, I said I'm
going wait *** minute,
get your head straight you've got because I have so many people that are
helping me. But it's one small step at *** time and that can be really
frustrating. No telling where I'd be if I was *** negative person.