I mentioned that we found our friends in St. Bernard Parish. I finally was able to sit down and get a good bit of the details first hand. More details will come out over time. I'll update when I get them.
The house is 8 feet above sea level and has survived much flooding. During much of the storm there was lots of wind but no significant flooding. At some point in the day, things settled down. They went outside to assess the damage. While there were trees down and other wind damage, the house had done suprisingly well. They noticed that the ground seemed saturated and almost looked like water was coming out of the ground.
As they turned around to go into the house, they noticed a wall of water coming quickly. In less than 5 seconds, water was up around their waste. They struggled to get inside the house and went upstairs to the 2nd floor. Convinced the water wasn't going to rise significantly, they went to bed.
They kept hearing loud crashes in the night. This turned out to be the furniture getting banged around on the first floor. The next day they noticed that the water was still rising a little. Their across the street neighbors were in their attic. They decided they needed to get them out of the attic before they became trapped there (no axe, see previous posts). An attempt to swim was made but the current was so strong it was not deemed safe. The boat was taken across the way and the neighbors were informed to come out of the attic and swim to the boat. Everyone got into the boat and were brought back to the 2nd floor and spent the night together. Some sound of helicopters were heard during the night.
The next day their daughter decided to go to where her horses were kept to untie them, figuring that if they were tied they would surely drown. After she had been gone for a significant amount of time, the father was determined to find her. He got into the boat and began to make the trek. The wind was so strong that the front of the boat kept getting blown up out of the water. After several times of trying, he finally figured out a way to make somewhat safe forward moving progress with a sideways movement. At that point a rope became entangled in the propeller and the motor became useless. As the boat drifted with the wind and current, it began moving towards power lines which were close to the height of the boat. He decided the best option was to lie flat in the boat and hope for the best. He passed under some lines and realized the lowest ones were telephone lines. He grabbed those and managed to get the boat tied up to a local grocery (I'm assuming roof high). He then swam several blocks back to the house.
They spent that night in the house with the neighbors. Not sure of all the details here but basically lots of water and sound of occasional helicopters.
The next day the waters began to subside but they noticed that the sound of rescue helicopters had stopped completely. After much discussion they decided to make a run for it for fear they would be left behind. As they began walking in the waist deep water, other people joined them and soon talk of a rescue barge began. Not sure how long the walk was but suffice to say it was a long one. Eventually they did find a barge and were brought to an area with school buses.
The school buses proved to be an ordeal with near riot conditions as people loaded into them. Eventually they made it to a bus and got out of the city. I don't have the details on their daughter yet, but they were reunited in Baton Rouge.
Bottom line, while having a boat may be better than not, it is no guarantee in a storm.
No comments:
Post a Comment