Casaroti Flood Relief-Louisiana

Around 2am on August 13th Joao and Crystal had just put the baby Anthony in his new swing to sleep. They were getting ready for bed when a friend called and told Joao that the river water was backing up and coming towards their house. He said they needed to evacuate. Both Crystal and Joao ran to the front door to look outside. The street was completely covered in water and it was rising fast. Crystal ran to the kitchen to grab the babies milk from the fridge and put it in a cooler bag with icepacks. Joao Paulo started trying to take important documents and hard drives up to the attic. The door bell rang. The neighbor from across the street was there and said they needed to get the baby stuff and leave right away. The water was now at the threshold of the front door. Crystal ran and got a suitcase to fill with diapers and some baby clothes. Joao got a suitcase and threw some clothes inside too. The neighbor loaded the cars outside. He offered to drive one car even though the water was now at the carport. Joao loaded the baby in the car seat and into the car. As Joao started driving Crystal noticed the neighbor didn't know how to operate the shifter on the Prius. She jumped out of the other car in water above her knees ran to the Prius and told the neighbor to let her drive. He got out. The neighbor pointed Joao and Crystal in the opposite direction of the rising water. It was dark out so they didn't know which way the water was coming from. Two blocks away the street was dryer. They stopped thanked the neighbor, cried and tried to decide what to do next. Crystal called 911. They told her that she should follow her instincts to go away from the rising water. They also said they wouldn't be able to help because they were trying to rescue 7,000 other people who were still in water. While Crystal was talking to police, Joao contacted Micheal & Jamie Gurt. They offered to let Joao, Crystal and the baby Anthony to stay at their home. Joao and Crystal didn't know if they would drive into more flooded roads but they started driving anyway in hopes that the roadways would be passable. As they drove water was reaching other roadways, police with trailers of boats were driving towards them, people were walking down the streets with backpacks of their belongings, and the park was full of stranded people in their cars. Crystal and Joao made it to Jamie and Micheal's house. They looked in the suitcases to see what they had. Crystal had a pair of flip flops some socks, underwear, shirts, a skirt, and two pairs of pants. Joao had some socks, underwear, and shirts. He did not have pants, but was wearing shorts. They had some clothes for Anthony, diapers, wet wipes, blankets, and the bottles of milk. Crystal forgot the nipples for the bottles so she borrowed some of Jamie's until she was able to get a few more. They had the baby rock n play in the back of the car, because Crystal hadn't unloaded it from the previous week of bringing it to Anthony's baby sitter.
The next day, a friend drove his boat to the Casaroti house. It was under 3-4 feet of water. He said it was one of the worst affected areas he had seen that day. The water inside was up the the keys of the three music studio grand pianos. They also had an upright Steinway there. There was no insurance on any of these instruments and they are a complete loss. They did not have flood insurance, because they were not in a flood zone. Both Crystal & Joao left their wedding rings in the house. This is a devastating occurance. Other people in their neighborhood were not as lucky however. They needed to be rescued from their roof tops. Crystal & Joao are thankful they had forewarning even if it wasn't much. It was less than 20 minutes. If they hadn't received the phone call or knock on the door from their neighbor the water would have reached baby Anthony before them.
Now they are trying to process all that happened and move on. It is likely the home will need to be rebuilt from scratch. Most items in the house will need to be replaced. FEMA will cover only a fraction of the cost for repairs. Any additional assistance is appreciated. They will need help getting the house as soon as waters recede. Thank you in advance. God Bless!