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Hurricane Ida revisited six months later
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February 25, 2022Sunday, August 29, 2021, is a day that will not be soon forgotten by many people who live in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux and surrounding areas.
Hurricane Ida was the worst storm to directly impact Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes since Hurricane Betsy, over 56 years ago in September 1965; and it was also one of the most damaging and intense hurricanes on record to make landfall in Louisiana.
Hurricane Ida’s catastrophic 150 plus mile-an-hour winds lashed the State of Louisiana as a Category 4 storm for about six hours after it made landfall at Port Fourchon, LA, destroying the homes and livelihoods of countless numbers of residents throughout the diocese and beyond. Several churches, Catholic schools and other facilities throughout the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux also sustained anywhere from major to moderate damage.
In Bayou Catholic’s Hurricane Ida special edition published in November 2021, we interviewed several residents whose homes and livelihoods were impacted by the hurricane. This past February 27 marked the six-month anniversary of Hurricane Ida’s landfall in Louisiana. In this month’s issue, we revisited some of the families we spoke with after the hurricane to see where they are with regard to rebuilding their homes and their lives after this devastating experience.
Ruth and Ted Falgout, parishioners of Our Lady of the Rosary Church parish in Larose, made what turned out to be a wise decision to ride out Hurricane Ida on their houseboat, which was anchored in a canal off the Intracoastal Waterway about 200 yards away from their house.
Ted estimates that there was about a seven-and-a-half-foot storm surge that brought over a foot and a half of water and mud into their home and destroyed both of their vehicles. He says it took almost two weeks for the mud to surface and over two weeks for the water to drain off the land; so, during that time there wasn’t much you could do in the way of cleaning.
“We were very fortunate to have a local contractor that had done a lot of work in our home before the storm, so we have made more progress than a lot of other people in our area,” says Ted. “We have walls and floors, but there is still much to be done. Getting building materials has been a problem, but we’re getting there. However, we probably won’t be back in our house for another six to eight weeks.”
The couple, who is living on their houseboat, says it’s not home, but it is comfortable and they are doing better than many other families in the area, so they are grateful for that.
They have had some success dealing with insurance companies following the hurricane. “Our flood insurance adjuster was very helpful in getting us our full coverage and paid us quickly. I guess when you have to bring them to your house in an airboat, there is not room for a lot of questions,” says Ruth. Both of their vehicles flooded and their car insurance paid them well and in a timely manner, also.
“Our homeowner’s insurance has been a different story,” says Ted. “At first, they said our damage was less than our deductible. After requesting a second adjuster, we were satisfied with the results, but we still haven’t gotten any money.”
Ted has worked really hard to get the yard back in shape, says Ruth, and we do have green grass. Most of the trees and shrubs are dead, but Ted has been working on removing them.
“He has been able to do a little hunting and fishing, although it is not anywhere close to what it was before the hurricane,” says Ruth. “We had fish twice in the last four months instead of twice a week like we were accustomed to. And, he even caught a few pounds of crawfish last week!”
Ruth says she thinks the progress that’s being made on the house feels slow. “I try to be patient and grateful for the progress that’s been made. Every weekend, Father Duc Bui’s (pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Church parish in Larose) homily seems to incorporate something about patience and that the aftermath of the storm will make us stronger. My weekly dose of that gets us through another week.”* * *
Sulina Hebert, parishioner of Sacred Heart Church parish in Cut Off, evacuated to Alabama for Hurricane Ida. She knew before she returned to Louisiana that there were some missing shingles on her roof and that her shed was gone, but when she walked into her house a few days after the storm, she was not at all prepared for the sight that greeted her.
The ceiling tiles and insulation were falling down, and there was water all over the furniture and on the floor. About a month later, the walls and the floors both started to buckle.
Sulina says all but one of the rooms in her home have been completely gutted to the studs. “I did most of the work myself. However, I did have a crew of seven men from across the country, housed by the Baptist Church in Golden Meadow, help me demo the master bath.” She had a new roof installed on Jan. 12.
When Bayou Catholic interviewed her in October 2021, she was living with her parents in Raceland. Shortly after that time, she says she moved in with some really great friends in Cut Off - Ashley and Al Archer. She is currently living in an Ida Sheltering camper on her property that she received the keys to on Jan. 11.
She was able to receive the camper through the State of Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, which opened the Hurricane Ida Sheltering Program at the beginning of October 2021. The program was designed to provide temporary housing, like travel trailers, to people in heavily impacted parishes where other sheltering options were unavailable.
Her dealings with the insurance company and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were for the most part positive. She reports that the insurance adjuster came out when he said he would. She then received one email from the insurance company saying that she had made a claim.
“It was very rare that anyone from the insurance company would answer phone calls or emails. I finally got a check for the entire amount of the policy on Nov. 22, 2021, but quickly learned that I was underinsured,” says Sulina. “I will not have enough money to repair my house to its pre-Ida condition. FEMA, via representatives at the government building in Raceland, has been helpful; however, I have not received any funds from them.”
She says she had to apply for an SBA loan first and has been waiting for the approval/disapproval status for that since Oct. 5, 2021. According to the FEMA representative she spoke to, if she is not approved for the SBA loan, FEMA should help her.
“I am satisfied with ‘my’ progress and the ability to gut my own house. I am still patiently waiting for the carpenter to fit me in the schedule to begin the build back process. I know it will be a slow process with so many people needing the very few carpenters that are available,” says Sulina.
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Kimothy and Melissa Guy, parishioners of St. Joseph Church parish in Chauvin, live along the banks of Bayou Little Caillou just south of Boudreaux Canal in a home that was raised 16 feet off the ground after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita flooded the area in 2005.
At the height of Hurricane Ida’s fury on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021, Kimothy, from his vantage point on the couple’s commercial fishing boat, witnessed the roof and living room walls blow off of their house and over the power lines, eventually breaking into two pieces and landing in the bayou.
The original three-bedroom shotgun style house was built in 1901 by Kimothy’s grandfather. Over the years, it has been added on to and a few changes were made to the layout.
Thus far, the repairs that have been made to their home include demoing the damaged parts of the structure, reframing the porch, reframing and replacing walls, laying new flooring, adding insulation and framing the roof. Contractors are currently laying plywood to prepare the house for a new metal roof. Melissa says they were able to save and reuse three of the original windows in the house.
The couple is currently living with Kimothy’s dad in Montegut. They received a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailer, which is sitting on their property unoccupied. As of press time, they had been waiting two and a half months for it to finish being hooked up so they could get the keys to it. At this rate, says Melissa, they’ll be able to move back into their house before the trailer is ready.
Kimothy, who makes his living on the water, had to put a hold on repairing his 55-foot steel hull commercial fishing boat, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ida. But the couple has been focusing on repairing their home, first. Melissa says it may be at least a year before Kimothy can fish again.
With the exception of the roof, Kimothy and Melissa, along with the help of family and a few friends, have done all of the carpentry work on the house themselves. “We’re not carpenters, but we’re doing the best we can,” says Melissa.
Overall, the couple says they are pleased with the amount of progress they’ve made so far.
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Alayna and Russell Dardar Jr., parishioners of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Pointe-aux-Chenes, along with their three children, Russell III, 6; Parker, 4; and Caroline, eight months, traveled up the bayou to Bourg to ride out Hurricane Ida with Russell’s family.
Their home sustained roof damage and had several broken windows. On the inside there were three buckled walls, ceiling tiles were falling down and there was water damage. They immediately cleaned up as much as they could and put a tarp on the roof to prevent further water damage.As of press time, the Dardars reported that all of the exterior and interior work that needed to be done on their house had been completed and they were able to move back in after five long months.
“We are satisfied with our progress now because we are finally done, but we would have liked the process to be faster,” says Russell.
The Dardars say they were fortunate because their insurance company was very easy to deal with, but unfortunately their Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) claim was denied. Russell says their insurance company did not cover most of the damages on the inside, so they had to pay for those repairs out-of-pocket.
“This experience was something that was very stressful for not only me and my husband, but for our kids, as well,” says Alayna. “We pray that this is something we don’t have to go through again any time soon or ever again!”