Sixteen years to the day after Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana, Hurricane Ida arrived with the same idea. Mary Harper Dake was in New Orleans for both of them.
But she and her husband, Charlie, made sure that the tremendous damage Katrina did to their home wouldn’t be repeated. On the same property, they rebuilt their house about 15 feet above sea level, with an iron frame and steel supports, and were able to weather Ida’s sustained 100 m.p.h. winds.
However, if the house and its interior were protected, the storm swept in a big mess on the property outside and, as Mary says, “Clean-up is the worst part!” With up to four feet of water from the Gulf covering their yard, “it brought in gumbo mud, tons of grass and heavy marsh weeds, wood that came from other places, and an alligator that scurried away when the water receded from the marsh.” A month after the storm, they were still clearing a ½ acre, and “forget about finding wheelbarrows, rakes, shovels, plastic bags, etc.” to help with that. The stores were cleaned out.
With the power grid down for the entire city of New Orleans, that meant no electricity and no phones for a month. And late in a New Orleans summer, 100 degrees of heat and humidity are just part of a hurricane’s aftermath. Stifling! The Dakes know they were fortunate compared to a lot of other Louisianans, but also that all their work after Katrina paid off and should keep them on solid ground against future powerful storms barreling in from the Gulf.
As Mary can say now, with just a little bit of understatement, “It was quite an experience.”
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