My Hurricane Laura story(updates as information comes)

I'll try to update this as I go. It's honestly been such a crazy ride. I've broken down a few times, but luckily not in front of my kids. It's kinda lengthy, but mostly cuz of all the crazy things that have happened to us. Like title said, I will try to update as new information comes or if I find I got something wrong. I'll try not to keep doing a new post in the thread unless I get more info. I live in Iowa, LA and built our dream/final home almost 5 years ago. We moved in 10 days after my oldest was born on March 25th 2016. I will try to update with some pictures too, like of our home, but also of our neighbor's/friends/family/neighborhood/city/etc.

I've decided to document this evacuation to help me remember and tell my kids when they're older.

To start, we are family of 5 with a 10 year old schnauzer. I have myself(34), my wife(33), and our 3 girls(4 year old, 20 month old, and 2 month old). We first got word that hurricane Laura was coming to our area in Lake Charles area as a category 1 and maybe a category 2. We weren't too concerned about it since we have a generator that can run our entire house for about 6 days with everything running like both air conditioners, lights, dryer, etc. After going to work on Monday, we got word that it had potential to be a category 3 hurricane. My wife and I made the decision to evacuate if it did make it to a category 3. I went to work on Tuesday and had received word that it would most likely be a category 3, and even the possibility of a category 4. At this point my wife and I decided to leave and to go ahead and book something for our family on Airbnb. On Tuesday morning, I also found out that I was going to have my sister with me to bring her(30), her son(4), and her 2 dogs. Her husband works for the sheriff's dept., so he would be forced to stay to help. Finding something to accommodate a family of this size that is also pet friendly isn't as easy as you may think. We finally found a place after searching for about 3 hours that was within our budget(trying to stay within about $175-$225 or less per night. My wife had already started packing the bags a couple days before just in case we had to leave thankfully. I left work at noon that day and picked up my kids from daycare then headed home. We agreed that we needed to all leave at around 4am to be able to beat traffic, which was a good call. We were on our way to Dallas, TX to make sure we were clear of the storm and any potential shifts since the Gulf of Mexico can be a little unpredictable(will be proven later). The trip went well for all involved. My sister drover her car and we drove my wife's minivan. We made one stop for breakfast at a McDonald's at around 6:30AM, got gas after a slight search, then back on our way.

We arrived at our bed and breakfast location in Dallas around 10AM to a bit of a surprise. It was said to be on a quiet residential street, yet it was on a corner where construction was going on. The house looked pretty good and clean from pictures, but pictures can always be deceiving. It was a bit of an older 2 story home and the area above was for the girl that was cleaning it as we walked in, which wasn't terrible. Found out the guy that was the maintenance was her boyfriend that lived up there with her. She left, but as she left, we found that there were no blankets on the beds(which were on pallets nailed together), no towels, no hand towels, and no pillows for the beds. As I went to the back, the cleaning girl said that there was a plumber that was fixing something in a back bedroom and would be back in an hour. As I went to the back bathroom, the smell of urine wafted from the room and was starting to smell up the other rooms. We were hanging around the house after getting the kids down for a nap, and I walked to the back bathroom to find a taser on that the simple push of a button would turn it on (which I tested) that could have been terrible if on of my kids got a hold of that were playing within about 10 feet of it. Then outside had glass that seemed to have broken from a window that was spread throughout the grass on each side of the driveway. After speaking with my sister and wife, they both said how scared they were of the area and the situation we were in, and asked if we can leave. I agreed and called the lady that held the Airbnb and said that she would refund us for everything we paid. She sent me the money back via Paypal and felt bad about all the issues that we addressed and she was very accommodating thankfully!

We packed ALL of our stuff back into the vehicles after my wife had found a hotel that was pet friendly that was only about 10 minutes away. We arrived there without much of a problem, and got ALL of our belongings brought inside to the 16th floor of the hotel. The room was a typical hotel room with 2 beds in each next to each other. We had two separate rooms and had to keep my sister's dogs separated from ours because one of hers doesn't like ours. The closest place to bring the dogs to go to the bathroom, was a small "park" that had about 1500 sq' of grass 2 blocks from the hotel we were staying in. Unfortunately, being in the middle of Dallas, TX, that's all that was available, but also there is more risk of some "shady" people, and there were homeless people that hung out/slept in that park. So I had to take my dog down to go to the bathroom, then go back up and go back down again with my sister and her 2 dogs to go to the bathroom.

That first night (Wednesday night-Thursday morning) was when the hurricane was going to hit at now a Category 4 with 150 mph winds(Category 5 is 157+ mph). Around 3:45am Wednesday morning, I received a call from my security service stating a window in my middle girl's room sensor went out. I then received another at 4am about the other window in her room tripping the sensor. I then decided to deactivate our alarm and tried to go back to sleep while thinking that both of my daughter's window got blown in even with the boards on. In the morning, I checked my activity via an app, and found that it just kept tripping them, making me believe that the windows were just flexing A LOT and not actually blown in!

While in Dallas, TX, I decided to go ahead and buy some tarps and roofing nails at a Lowe's since we didn't know what the situation would be like to purchase once we got back to town. We bought 4 16x20 tarps, 4 8x10, and 10 lbs of roofing nails.

That same day, we decided to bring the kids to a park a few miles away to play and get some energy out since they had been held up inside rooms without getting to stretch their legs and get some energy out. On our way there, I was following GPS best I could with 2 of my youngest fussing/crying. As I got off an exit, I had to get over to the furthest lane to turn quickly. As we were getting off, I had to try to keep my sister within my view that was following behind me in her car, but also get across 4 lanes of traffic. I had someone flash their lights to allow me over, but I had swung over kind of quickly and behind that vehicle was a sheriff. You guessed it, he lit me up and I pulled over into a parking lot. So as of now, I'm going through a little bit, but also have my conceal carry weapon on me(yes, I have a CHP). So I get my wife to quickly get out her registration and insurance while I pull out my license and my Conceal Handgun Permit. He gave me about a minute and I'm thinking about this is probably one of the last things I need to deal with. He approached my vehicle and asked if I knew why I was pulled over and admitted I knew why. While keeping both hands on the steering wheel, I, as calmly as possible, handed over all the information I had in my hand and stated that we were from Lake Charles, LA area and evacuated from there for the hurricane and were trying to find a park to let the kids play. He left, then returned and said he wasn't going to give me a ticket or anything, but more or less wanted to make sure he knew what I did wrong, plus said he wasn't going to add to the hard time we were having.

We stayed there in Dallas for 2 nights, but my sister only stayed for one night then we went different ways. My sister decided to go stay with an uncle that lived in Austin, TX about 3 hours from the hotel that had just bought a 3BR/2BA house. We decided to go to my wife's aunt's house in Baton Rouge, LA that was about 7 hours away.

We left the hotel around 2:30AM to beat traffic again. The trip went pretty smoothly with all the kids making it about 4 hours before we arrived close to Alexandria, LA. We pulled off the interstate after seeing a sign for gas and us only having about 1/4 tank or less....van computer said we had about 60 miles until empty. We pulled off but found that the station was off the road a bit, so decided to get back. As I was getting back on interstate, I thought I had noticed something sounded weird with the transmission. But thought it was just from my delirium or paranoia. We pulled off at another exit about 15 miles down the road, but they didn't have any power, so all were closed. We needed to stop though because our youngest needed to eat, and being that my wife was breastfeeding her, we had to stop a moment to feed her, and I decided to get the kids some snacks from the back of the vehicle. Unfortunately, my oldest needed to use the bathroom, and there was no power, so I had to bring her to the back of the building we stopped at and let her use the bathroom. I apologized the entire time to her because I never wanted her to have to do that under my watch. When we got back on the road, I could hear something happening with the transmission that seemed to switch from a grinding, to a whining noise....almost like the van had a turbo (haha, yea right). I am extremely nervous at this point as a I don't want my family stranded on the side of the road. The transmission only seemed to make this kind of noise within the first gear, but not within the other gears. I was able to make it to a gas station I had passed 4 miles back, but noticed a bunch of vehicles in line...now I know why. We had to wait about 30 mins as now there were vehicles backed up onto the interstate to get gas, and there were some trucks there filling gas cans for generators, as well a big truck with about 10-15 generators in the truck looking like they were bringing them to help somewhere and not for personal use. After getting gas, we got back on interstate with the transmission sounding like a turbo spooling up on take offs. We went for about another hour, made it to about Lafayette, LA, and decided to stop at a gas station to go to the bathroom for us adults, feed the baby again, then finish the trip off and make it to Baton Rouge. During this time, my wife had made a call to the Honda dealership in Baton Rouge, LA to see if we could bring it in to be diagnosed and all. They asked what we had, then stated that it was a 2019 Honda Odyssey with about 33k miles, which was well within our manufacturer warranty, as well as our extended warranty that went to 120k miles.

We arrived at my wife's aunt's house at about 10AM, then I headed to Honda dealer around 11 with her aunt following me to bring me back. After dropping it off, they called me back around 4PM to let me know that the transmission was shot, and needed to be replaced...all under warranty. At this point, between the mixture of delirium and no other options, I just start laughing. Crying would do nothing for it, so I can only laugh at it now. They say that they ordered a new transmission and it would be in around Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week, with it being able to be installed by the Thursday or Friday, but also maybe into the following week. Luckily, the service man there was very friendly and helpful, as well as empathetic towards me. He even set up a call to get us a rental car that is covered under our extended warranty for 5 days. I held off because I was going to be able to make it home by riding with my wife's step dad as he was going back to access damage on his house, as well as help clean up. My truck has our 3 other car seats in it and can fit my whole family in it.

I made the trip the next morning and caught traffic quite a bit. It's usually a 2 hour drive, but it took us 3 hours and 15 minutes due to different traffic congestion spots. We finally made it to our house and my wife's step father dropped me off. I had been in contact with a company that had gotten to our subdivision and was tarping roofs and would roof, they just wanted you to sign a contract. I had done a little research on the company and they seemed to be pretty legit, and didn't behave poorly/shady/want money up front cash/etc. I met with them while there on the Saturday and he told me he'd have it tarped on Monday, and would also start roof as soon as he could, just needed the adjuster to stop by and get quote. They stated they did all the work through the insurance company and would need their decision of insurance coverage and money before starting (perfectly understandable). I then got a call from my adjuster about an hour after stating he would meet me on Tuesday to access my damage and go from there. While at my house on Saturday, I got packed some more clothes for all of my family, some extra supplies/essentials we all needed, as much food from the fridge/freezer I could bring in ice chests, turned off my generator that was keeping the house around 78 degrees and keeping freezers running, but also hopefully deterring looters thinking someone may have been home.

While there, I had heard of an older couple that had been murdered in their home that day about 6 miles from us, and then the couple that lived next to them was murdered as well. I was then carrying another pistol I had with me at all times just in case.

I accessed the damage inside our home as well as outside and took a few pictures for the adjuster. Compared to others, we don't have hardly anything at all. I had some shingles and tar paper go missing on the front of our house that faces east, some more off of our bonus room above the garage, and a few little ones here and there around the roof. Some flashing/soffit/trim work also got a little bent up. Also looking in the backyard, found that my daughters' swingset/playhouse and monkey bar dome toy had all blown away or was destroyed and spread throughout our yard. The monkey bar dome toy surprised me since it was metal, and the air can flow very easily though it, but got me thinking that either a tornado grabbed it and threw it somewhere (still haven't found it) or it was drug away by something else like my neighbor's awning that was ripped apart. Inside we have some water damage on the ceiling in a couple rooms as well as a wall upstairs, but thankfully as of now, nothing in any bedrooms! I'm a little concerned about mold in rooms since I've returned from Hurricane Rita that took almost the exact path, but damaged my parent's roof just 15 years before, making us have to deal with some mold within the rafters and ceiling. The good thing about our house insulation, is that we used the open cell foam that sprays onto your roof from the underside between the rafters against the OSB roof. The water that drips in, drips straight through it and doesn't trail along it to the walls. I've heard the horror stories of people getting leaks with closed cell foam in their attics, and it would trail down into the wall without anyone knowing until too late, and their wall is rotted out! Luckily where it's leaking in our house, we have some of the girls different size clothes, but they're packed in plastic totes and no water has gotten to them, but has pooled on top or dripped off and onto the ceiling.

 

Just one thing after another.

The main thing is that your family is okay. Everything will be fixed in time.
Wishing you and your family all the best Andy. Stay Strong.

 

Sorry to hear of your unpleasant situation, hopefully the worst is over and you can go back to living a normal life, I’m just kind of curious, did you have to type all that? that’s quite an essay that you brought forth you get an A+
thoughts and prayers to you and your family for a good recovery

 

I'm sorry you went through all of that but I'm glad you and your family are okay. It's crazy how much and how fast shit can pile up on you and make you want to break. It sounds like you are a good person and have a great family. You got this.

 

I typed this on a computer, so it wasn't too bad. It's all good and the days are getting better. I'll try to post some pics soon.

 

A few I've gotten as of now. No inside ones yet. Will probably take those on Tueaday when I go back

 

Your fortress still stands, friend. In the end, that and your family’s health is all you can ask for. Rooting for a fast recovery for y’all and the rest of your area except for those murderous looters you mentioned. May they rot in the hell from whence they came...

 

Super important to write things down, you think you will never forget but you will. I saw things after Katrina and Rita and have forgotten a lot of the little important details. After we flooded in2016 I made sure to write it all down, daily.

Glad you're all safe

 

What a saga! I'm glad you're all getting through this as well as you are, I'm sure it's hard to hold it together at times. Thanks for updating all of us here. I hope life gets back to normal for you soon.

 

Zero fucks given until I see some paragraphs there. Suck it up princess.


















JK. *bro hugs* no homo.

 

Here is a pretty good comparison of wind difference between hurricane Rita that hit us in 2005 and hurricane Laura that hit us in 2020.

 

Yeah, Rita was a real you know what. Not a single fence left standing in my neighborhood. They were all laid over.. almost neatly. And we had a giant radio antenna in our pool.

 

Sorry to hear all this man. As long as the family is okay, that's all that matters. As the cliche goes, things can be replaced, people cannot.

 

Man that's a lot to deal with. I'm so sorry you went through all that but I hope it brings you closer as a family and I'm happy your house looks relatively unscathed.

I have to ask, what's up with people being murdered in their homes?

 

Just saw this. Sorry to hear about all the bad luck at the same time. But based on some of the things I've seen on the news, you came out of it better than a lot of others. Best wishes, hope you get back to normal soon.

 

Glad you are safe!

 

Rita and Laura were completely different storms. 115 mph winds vs 150 mph winds. Your house doesn’t look too bad. My house had more damage than that from Katrina and we did not flood. I didn’t read your long post. But I pray for a speedy recovery.

 

Andy, that's quite the ordeal, and your journey isn't over yet. I hope you and your family can get things back together quickly and get back to enjoying life. It's usually a good thing to record these types of events to help us maintain perspective in less trying times. Writing it all down can help with processing the intense and complex whirlwind of emotions that these kinds of trials put us through. You should save all this for you kids too. Records and accounts from people that lived through these things are so much more informative and helpful than official records and reports.

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that if you need to vent and get things off your chest, or even just have that breakdown, we are here. Post it up here, or PM somebody if you need to. We are a community. We care.

 

Sup and thanks everyone. Today was what I considered a good day. I went to the house early and met with adjuster and roof guys tarping my roof. Seemed to go well. Started working on the yard after adjuster left and it was 10 by then. Hot as a MF'er! Heat index put us around 108 I believe. I'm pasty as hell and will burn easily, so I put sunscreen on 2xs and drank a bunch of water. Haha. Ants and snakes are everywhere as they usually are after these types of storms. I didn't get to finish cleaning, so I'll be back out again after a couple days. I think we actually got a cool front coming through in a week. Here are a couple pics from the storm. I'm not sure what the news is showing since I havent really had time to watch it, but have heard its practically not showing anything. Thanks again y'all. Definitely know that I'm doing extremely well and dont have nearly the type if troubles of what others have! Adjuster also told me today that there was a 2 story house on piers that he had done before me and said the house was literally picked up and throw back down on the ground! It's crazy what some people are going to have to deal with. My brother, his gf, and their 3 girls have a rough time ahead. They lost basically everything and only had structural insurance...so nothing lost will be covered. He works for sherriffs and shes security at a casino tribe, so income is crap already. They're optimistic tho(at least appear to be)

 

Glad you had a good day. Bummer for your Brother, but at least they are keeping their chins up. Thank you for the pics as well. Like I said before, personal accounts are far more informative than official stuff. Stay safe.

 

It's crazy that they try to compare them so much when they were different. Only similar thing were close to the paths they took. Rita was a 5 but hit as a 3. Laura hit as 4...almost a 5. Wind strength was different and storm surge was different....both pretty destructive tho. But they're saying this is one of the strongest ones to hit since 1856 I think.

 

Got power back on yesterday and going back home tomorrow. LOTS of people around us and further west of us will be without power for another month or so....especially the ones south of us in Cameron area and along coast. Also found this pic again and thought I'd share it from the hurricane.

 

That's great to hear! I hope your life gets back to normal quickly!

And sharks over a powerline?!?!?

 

Holy Sharknado!!!!

 

Did they have frickin' laser beams attached to their heads?

 

I'm sorry to hear about your struggle and if anyone understands you best, that'd be me.

Living in a hurricane beaten region isn't fun when shit goes above Category 2, but the Baja NEEDS storms and hurricanes to refill the natural water supply. We're mostly used to it and build accordingly, but even then, a category 4 will damage the strongest buildings whether it's wind-force or hurling stuff at it. 2014's Odile was a nightmare, widespread destruction, loss of life and livelihood. Then 2017's Lidia, without contest the most insane rainfall I've ever experienced, so much so that it literally dug under buildings and took them for a ride... granted, those buildings were never supposed to be so close to a dry riverbed... but then! Mexico!.

Stay safe out there.

 

My youngest step-son and his family live in Lake Charles. They had some roof shingles and tar paper torn off, trees down in the yard etc. The biggest damage came from the neighbor's 2 car garage slamming into the back of the house.

Like you, they got power back yesterday. But we have to two kids here with us and got them registered in school this week.