A personal story of the long recovery from flooding in Baton Rouge
It took us a full 8 months to move back home after the flooding last August. We were somewhat lucky in that my wife's mother lived not too far from us so we camped out with her. She now lives with us.
The first thing the Houston area folks are gonna need is an honest contractor because there will be tons and tons of crooks showing up. And the problem is there are only so many good contractors to go around so it's gonna be hit and miss. And i really don't think there is enough sheet rock on the planet to replace what has been lost in Houston, Beaumont, Galveston, etc.
It took probably a couple of weeks just to get everything out of the house so it could start drying out. I've found out the heaviest substance know to man is wet carpet! But even after all the sheet rock was thrown out and the furniture and the appliances and the clothes and the sheets and the beds and the books were at the street, all the sheet rock in the house had to be removed even though we only got 2 1/2 feet of water in the house.
After a month of trying to get house dry (all work had to stop in the meantime) we finally figured out there was water under the brick floor in the kitchen and dining room. That had to be removed which took another 2-3 weeks. Again, no other work could be done while that was going on. But after the bricks were removed it only took about another few weeks to dry the house enough the re-building could start up again.
Oh, and the paperwork! A permit here, a permit there. Then dealing with FEMA inspectors and flood insurance inspectors and city inspectors.
And they should get ready for hassles with whoever holds the mortgage on their home because that entity is the one that will be doling out the flood insurance money. So much to begin, so much more when the repairs are 25% complete, so much more at 50% and so much more when all repairs are completed. That's all well and good but how can you get to 100% complete with only 50% of the flood insurance money? No one has ever been able to answer that question.
We still have neighbors who are not living in their homes a year after the flood. Can't find honest contractors even now. Several are sitting in jail because they took money from homeowners and never did any work. It's a fine line Houston folks are gonna have to walk and hope and pray they find someone they can trust.
We had flood insurance on the structure but not the contents, so we're now deeply in debt for the rest of our lives. And we don't expect any help from the $1.6 billion congress has authorized for Louisiana (of which less than a half million has been delivered to flood victims) because we had flood insurance. That's yet another federal government hassle..people like us who had flood insurance and did everything we were supposed to do are screwed once again by Uncle Sugar. And that SBA loan we had to take just to finish our home can NOT be paid back with any of that $1.6 billion appropriated by Congress because it's considered a GRANT and not a LOAN! Do you see a pattern here?
Sad to say, the flood victims in the Houston area are in for a long and miserable existence for the foreseeable future. How long? Depends on how rich you are I guess. But I would be very surprised if Houston, Galveston and Beaumont and the areas in between are back to "normal" two years from now.
The den before everything was thrown out to the curb
Piles of furniture and, well, everything else waiting to be carried away as seen from the house looking out on the lawn. Scenes like this will dominate much of Houston in the coming months. It will take that long to pick it all up and cart it away.
This story is from Don Molino, a long time radio reporter in Louisiana and a friend of mine from college days.
By Don Molino, Baton Rouge resident and radio reporter