The water finally started to recede during day five of the historic floods in Baton Rouge.
Many families near Millerville Road who evacuated over the weekend were shocked to find waist-high water marks on their homes and nearly half that on their belongings inside Tuesday.
The neighborhoods are not designated flood zones so most do not have flood insurance, including 11-year-old Hayden Holloway’s grandma.
“We’ve been at my grandma’s house all day,” Holloway said. “It’s all we’ve been working on really!”
Holloway was supposed to start school Tuesday, but the flood waters pushed his first day back to next week. He’s spending his extended summer break cleaning up the mess several feet of water left behind.
“It has a smell to it,” Holloway said. “Terrible stuff. We’re running a generator because she doesn’t have power and we’ve been taking out all the wood where it got watered. The wood was all ruined.”
The 11 year old tried to save what he could from his favorite place to visit.
“We’ve been been taking clothes out of her closets and trying to keep pictures out of the water,” Holloway said. “It makes me feel like I need to be doing that so I can be a good citizen.”
His grandma’s neighbors are in the same boat.
“It came so fast, it just came so fast,” said Angelina LeBlanc who has lived off Millerville for the past 14 years with her husband. “It was a big shock to everyone in this area. It feels like my home, but I just can’t imagine sleeping in here in the next few days or weeks.”
LeBlanc and her family have been working since Monday morning to save whatever they could, after the water forced them to evacuate and return home by boat.
“We lost mattresses, furniture, walls, flooring,” she said. “But, actually, I was more relieved that the water had drained from the house, that we could get rid of some of these things to actually make sure our home was safe and didn’t have mildew and water sitting in it for days.”
LeBlanc and her husband also do not have flood insurance because they never thought they would need it.
“Our street has never held water before,” she said. “This is just devastating for our community, but it could have been so much worse and it is so much worse for other people.”
LeBlanc said the only thing getting her through this is the outpouring of support from her family, friends, even strangers.
“In times like this, this is what we do best,” LeBlanc said. “Louisiana really pulls together so much. That’s all you can do is just pitch in and help wherever you can.”
That’s what Holloway will continue to do because strangers did the same for him. The floods forced him and his mom to evacuate their house by boat.
“You had to think about being brave,” he said.
Now that he and his house are dry, Holloway wants to pass along his courage to those still awaiting their rescue.
“Be brave,” he said. “Don’t worry about your house. Just worry about yourself. It’ll be ok.”