September 2005 - Hurricane Katrina
As many of you know, Chad's parents and sister live in Slidell, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans that was hit very hard by hurricane Katrina. They evacuated to Savannah, Georgia, but their house did not fair well. Dad and Chad were the first to return 1 week after the storm hit.
Here's a shot from far away of the house. You can't see to much, but note that my parents do not own a boat. The one in the picture floated into their yard from a couple houses down the street.
It's hard to see, but this is the water line of the water that got into the house. It's just under 3 feet.
Here's a look at the den. The floor is covered with a film of silt from the flood.
And here's the living room. Most of the stuff floated, moved around, and fell over. Lots of stuff floated around as well, ending up in very different rooms than they started out in.
Here's a closeup of the wall. It's hard to see, but there are lots of fuzzy black spots (mold) all over it.
To stop the spread of mold, we had to rip out all the wet drywall and insulation. Bill and his brothers came down to help us, which was a good thing since we wouldn't have come close to finishing without their help.
The water came in with such force that it blew out the wallboard along the back of the house.
The hardwood floor in the den swelled so much that the floor buckled.
The insulation was still soaked despite the fact that it had been a week since the water receeded.
Mom's car was flooded as well. Note that the windows are completely fogged up since the car is still very wet. The car was totalled.
The most disgusting part was the refrigerator, which was possibly the most aweful smell I've ever experienced.
We returned 2 weeks later to clean out the house and throw things away. This is a shot of everything on the curb at the front of the house.
And here's a shot of the side of the house (the left side of the street is our stuff, the right side of the street is our neigbors).
