Battling Covid and Hurricane Ida.

I'm not going to sugar coat things. I am begging and pleading for your assistance. My dear friends, if there is anything you can do to assist me in my time of need I would be more grateful than I could ever truly express. Whether it's in the form of a donation or just sharing this with your friends. Please take the time to read my story. I'm not the type of person to ever expect anything from anyone, or want to need. I believe in being a very self reliant individual. Unfortunately I am dealing with incredible hardship, and in my time of need even if you could just share this with your friends it could make a world of difference. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this, it means the world to me. I need to share this story...

I have lived in Laplace Louisiana for 20 years.

Back on August 3rd my whole family caught covid. My father and I ended up getting really sick and doing serious battle with the virus. It took me 2 weeks, an ambulance ride to the ER and a 3 day stay in the hospital to recover.

My dad took even longer and is in even more rough shape. He just returned home a few days ago and all of the sudden Hurricane Ida came bearing down on us at the most inopportune time. We had very little options and had to ride out the storm.

My dad has been dealing with oxygen issues since his bout with covid. If he is resting his blood/oxygen levels do okay but if he moves around at all, even the simple act of going to the restroom causes him to require small doses of supplemental oxygen. We had an oxygenator and a full tank of oxygen for if he needed to leave the house. He has also been dealing with a bad knee and really struggling to walk, possibly gout.

So on August 29th we get hit by hurricane Ida. Everything goes smoothly for us for the first half of the day because we are not located on the coast. But the situation soon deteriorates and we are getting hit with extremely strong winds. Our neighbor behind us loses his fence, we lose a tree in our front yard and if that was the worst of our problems we would praise the lord. But little did we know how dire our situation was truly about to become...

Around 4PM we start getting hammered by the eye wall. Trees are falling down everywhere you look. We have retreated to the safest part of the house and suddenly we get a miraculous phone call. Our neighbor Judy, who is aware of our recent plight, informs us that one of our evacuated neighbors has called and warned that the storm is doing exactly what hurricane Isaac did in 2012 and that we are going to flood again...our whole neighborhood was destroyed by hurricane Isaac back in 2012. Most people, including us, decided to stay and rebuild.

Judy tells us that she wants us to go to her house and hunker down because she has a two-story home and we will be safe there. We decide to get our hurricane bags and make the drive a few houses down. We open the front door and the flood waters have rapidly risen beyond what we had realized. Our car is not going to make it. Luckily, Judy has family at the end of our street and he at this very moment is driving his truck down there. I run out into the flood waters, desperately flagging him down...thankfully, he sees me and graciously pulls in to our driveway. I have all of our cars pulled up as much as possible so the bottom 1/3rd of our driveway is available to him but the water is knee high.

My dad makes a valiant walk down to the truck. We are in a much more desperate and frantic situation than we had anticipated. They open the truck door for him but he is now standing in knee high water and his cane will be of no use. I get my mom in to the truck and assist my dad who makes a valiant effort with sheer will, guts and determination to pull himself into this vehicle. I get his oxygen tank in the vehicle also but there is an issue where my dad can not get his feet clear of the door. I have to do all I can to get him in and unfortunately it delivers him a large dose of pain.

At this point I have to mention that we have two dogs. A taco terrier named Lola and a beagle named Charlie. In all of this frantic activity we shut them in the master bedroom on top of the bed. I moved some items to where if they did jump down they could get back up and we shut the door. This was tearing me apart during all this chaos and I told my parents I'll stay with the dogs and go up in the attic if I have to. My mother was far too scared though and it became clear that we would be able to come back for them and bring them to the safe house just as soon as we rescue ourselves. So I climb in the truck and we make our way down the street.

The water is rising by the second and we get a few houses down to where we will be staying and water is already reaching their front steps. I assist my mom out of the vehicle and get her in the house. I then assist my dad with the help of the other neighbors and get him and his much needed oxygen inside as well. At this point we realize that we have left our hurricane bags but more importantly my parents medicine at the house.

My gracious neighbor tells me he will assist me in going and getting the bags but we will be going by foot while we still can. Now, you have to remember, not only are we in the midst of a dangerous flash flood...but we are getting absolutely pounded by the eye wall of a still category 4 hurricane Ida. The wind is blowing extremely at all times, my helpful neighbor had his glasses blown off of his face and lost during all of this. We are getting hit by severe wind gusts that make visibility near 0 and slams us with stinging rain. Trees are down all over the place and debris is everywhere. We can only hope and pray that we don't get hit by anything or crushed under another falling tree.

We begin our first trip back to the house, watching our footing as we step from his driveway to the road which is now waist high with water. We make our away across the street and walk to my house. Our bags are all right by the door so I take this time to tell my neighbor about the dogs and he agrees that we should come back for another trip and get them to safety. We both grab a couple of bags and make our way back to the safe house.

After dropping off the bags we go on the rescue mission for the dogs. This time when we step in to the street the water has already risen a few more inches and the current has suddenly picked up drastically. Pushing hard and making it harder to keep our footing. Nevertheless we make it across again and walk back to my house.

I had a flashlight crammed in my pocket and use it to go find a trash bag and fill it with dog leashes and as much dog food as we can reasonably carry across these dangers. We also took a little carrier case because it was decided that our neighbor would carry the smaller dog Lola and he was very worried about losing her if he just carried her loose. And I was going to just carry our beagle Charlie in my arms.

I go to the master bedroom and the dogs are still sitting on the bed. They clearly had enough sense and awareness to know this situation was bad. I open the carrier and grab Lola and begin to put her in. It's a little too small but manageable and I have no choice but to cram her in there. I give the carrier and the trash bag to my neighbor and call out to my beagle. He comes but is in a state of panic. That's just the type of dog he is on a regular basis and this is a very extraordinary situation.

I pick my beagle up. Grab all the car keys we had left behind and stuff all but one in my pocket, exit the house and lock the door behind me. We begin the trek back to the safe house. Now I mentioned that I had recently had an extreme fight with covid. I haven't been sick for a little over a week at this point but I've still had a lingering cough and I've also struggled with running out of breath a lot easier than I should. Just getting fatigued way easier than I did before covid and at this point I am pushed to my limit.

We are crossing the street, the current is still pushing us strongly, the water is almost to our chests now. My foot gets tied up in some tree debris under the water. My heart is racing and I'm almost out of gas. I am huffing and puffing and to the point where I think I may just have to stop. I change my grip on my beautiful beagle Charlie who is helping me by not freaking out and I look up toward the house; knowing I am going to have to show some grit and finish this journey. I push through my exhaustion and get on the driveway and trudge up toward the house alongside my neighbor and we make it.

The water is all the way up to the step just below the actual door as we all enter the house. Everyone has settled in and we begin to move all of our bags upstairs. I tell my gracious neighbors if they need anything done to let me know. They and we are expecting this house to take water. Its only a matter of time but we are getting everyone prepared to move upstairs.

As we work to put household items upstairs, eventually water does begin to come through the front door. We take my dad and help him upstairs and quickly get him on his oxygen. My mom also goes up and I see them to the room we will be in. I then go back downstairs to assist in anything that needs to be done. This house has electricity by way of some kind of brilliant generator system so it is fully powered. Suddenly though but not unexpectedly we have about 2 inches of water in the house and it is just streaming through the front door. We have put as many household items up and out of harms way as possible and I walk through the house and unplug any items still plugged in to sockets. The last thing we need is for someone to get electrocuted.

Outside the storm still rages. But we have no visibility and are only left to wonder what kind of water or wind damage our house might have taken since we fled. We have no television or internet but we have occasional text and calls getting through and we are hearing horror stories from other neighbors as our wonderful hosts attempt to offer assistance and safety to anyone else who may be in need of it. The water rises inside the house a few more inches and reaches the bottom landing of the stairs. We all head upstairs and retreat to the rooms made available to us, but there will be no good sleep on this night.

Fortunately we are safe and while we aren't in the safest possible scenario, we are safe enough and eternally grateful. Our home can be replaced. Things can be replaced. Your life can not be replaced and we all take solace in the fact that we are alive. A lack of sleep on this night will one day be remembered as a minor inconvenience; though only daybreak will reveal the extent of our tragedy and reveal the trials our lives are about to face.

After a night of intermittent sleep, I awoke early the next morning. I walked downstairs to find that the water had receded out of the house but an all too apparent water line on the wall indicated about 10 inches had got in as we slept. Able to walk out on to the front porch I did so. I was no longer looking at a street but a river. The water was inches from our house so it did little to quell my fears.

Luckily our hosts are louisiana strong. The men of the household had their little boats at the ready and I was quickly given a river taxi over to my house. Immediately upon approaching the front door I could see the exterior water line had reached a little more than a foot over the door, a door that I had to force open because the current had scattered our belongings all throughout the house. Luckily we were able to save family heirlooms and the important things but as I walk through the house the destruction is just devastating. The House took on about 16 inches and the waters have left chaos in their wake.

In our front room the bookshelves we had used to put the family photos up high have collapsed and with all the debris and darkness it is too hard to see what, if anything is salvageable. The House is also making strange noises and I'm concerned about snakes or any other swamp critters that may have slithered their way in to the house.

All the lower cabinets in the kitchen are absolutely destroyed. All the furniture in the living room is ruined. Everything not on a tall surface in the bedrooms are water damaged. The wooden floors are warping and mud stained and the carpets are drenched and disgusting. I look out in to the backyard and see the utter devastation behind us. Our shed is still flooded and I'm only left to assume what has or has not been ruined in there. The pieces of wooden fence from a backyard neighbor have floated into and are scattered about our yard. I walk to the front of the house and open the garage door; it looks like a tornado has struck and items are scattered everywhere.

After attempting to salvage what little we hadn't protected that I could, I start to put together a bag of necessities. Due to the frantic nature of our flight my dad had forgotten a good bit of his more recent medications and I make my way through the house collecting those items. I snatch up left behind glasses and personal items. I put a bag of extra clothes together. I grab as many snacks as possible to donate to our communal snack basket at the safe house. I also grab snacks and supplies for the dogs and my hour has just about expired.

I go outside to wait for my boat ride back to safety and it dawns on me that I have lost my car. I had a 2006 Honda Civic that was paid for and water is still about halfway up the door. I had pulled the cars as close to the house as possible in preparation and most likely saved my parents cars but mine is a loss. As I only had liability on the car I'm pretty sure I'm screwed and as a pizza delivery driver who has been out of work for weeks due to covid, my employment situation has just gotten that much more dire.

I return to the safe house and inform my parents of the catastrophe that is our home. They had spent the night getting their cries out and beginning to process and accept the reality we were more than likely going to face. They respond as stoically and headstrong as anyone possibly could under these circumstances. The important thing is that we are safe and alive. Their new talk is of getting out of Louisiana...which I can't really argue with. When you have your home destroyed by a hurricane once it's one thing, but a second time is just a bridge too far and it would be foolish to risk a third experience such as this.

So, I'm not sure where that leaves me. All I know is my family and I are in need of assistance. And that's what I'm asking you for. If you can assist me in any way possible I would be beyond grateful from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much for taking the time to read and share my experience. As difficult as it was, I hope you yourself can get something out of this tale....

Thanks again!

Your Relative, Friend and Co-Worker as well as your Big Brother on the FRIGHTERNITY podcast and the one and only bUdDh1sT_PsYcHo on PokerstarsVR!

Sean Brown.