“This is my home. The whole town is my home, and it’s small, and everybody pretty much knows everybody. So, we all look out for each other and help each other,” said French Settlement Mayor Toni Guitrau.
Mayor Guitrau said French Settlement is not just her community, it is her family.
“It’s exciting every time somebody gets a new mobile home in, or they’re building their house back. It’s so exciting to hear it, and we just really have been praying we don’t get hit by a storm, and this one was just too close for comfort,” explained Guitrau.
Wednesday, we caught up with Mayor Guitrau and her granddaughter Milla, as the town started to experience flooding, as the Amite River continued to rise. Guitrau said any time flooding happens, it is not taken lightly, esepcailly after the floods last year brought on foot after foot of water.
“Down by Meca subdivision, which is by the south part of town, the Amite Rive Bridge, they are starting to see some flooding, and it is because it’s coming from the Gulf, and it’s pushing it back up into the river,” said Guitrau.
The mayor said now it is just time to wait and see as Harvey pushes north.
As of Wednesday at 4:00 P.M., the Amite River at French Settlement is at 3.88 feet. The flood stage is four feet.