LA Flood 2016 Verhulst Relief

(O'Neal Lane at I-12 on August 14th. Our houses are less than a mile from this photo.)

On August 13th, at 5pm, my neighborhood off of O'Neal Lane in Baton Rouge went under water. My home, and my sister’s, both took 2.5 feet of water. We lost four cars to the flood water, despite moving them to the highest parts of our properties.

My name is David Verhulst, and my wife is Gretchen Steinhauer Verhulst. My sister is Michelle Verhulst Watts and is married to Josh Watts. We lived 200 feet away from each other and looked forward to raising our daughters together. My daughters are 4 years old and 7 months old. My sister’s daughter is 6 months old. They are still so young, and we want to make sure they never have to feel the cost of this flood.

Our houses have been gutted, and most of our worldly possession now sit in debris piles on our front lawns. We’ve lost nearly everything: appliances, furniture, cloths, carpet, cabinets, bathroom fixtures, even doors. We are looking for funds to rebuild our lives (Repairing houses, replacing cars, buying funiture, clothes, etc).

 Our Flood Day Story, in short:
Around 1pm on that Saturday, I took note of an RV that refused to use the exit by my neighborhood. It stopped in front of my sister’s house, waited about five minutes, then backed up and drove back the way it came. I walked over to my sister’s, and we watched the water, trying to decided how significant the situation was. We had lived in the neighborhood through Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, and Hurricane Gustav, and the neighborhood had never come close to flooding. At 2:11pm, we decided to leave. By 2:30pm, we were trapped. I watched my wife, my daughters, my niece, my sister and her husband, and myself, be evacuated by boat. My daughter had an exciting day, playing at her aunt's, walking through the water, getting to meet firefighters, riding in a boat and spending the night at a new friend’s house. Days later, she began to understand the impact. I want to take that burden from her. We have survived the weeks since off of the generosity of friends and family, who proved to be amazing people.

 I am a QA Project Lead for EA, at EABR. Gretchen is a middle school Resource/Special ED teacher for EBR Parish. Michelle works as a Med Tech at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital. Josh is a veteran, studying to be a teacher, and does standup comedy around the gulf coast. Olivia was scheduled to start Kindergarten on the Monday after the flood, but her school flooded. Allison and Zoey have just started sitting up, giggling and babbling.

 I am not sure what to ask of others, as this is our problem to fix. We've never asked for help outside of our family before. If you took the time to read this and considered us, I thank you. 

At this time, I will be withdrawing the funds as needed, but I will likely set Michelle up for withdrawls as well.


I will add more telling pictures.


(Michelle and Josh outside their house)
(Here is a shot of the debris field outside Gretchen and David's home.)