LAROSE, La. — There were 460,000 insurance claims statewide after Hurricane Ida, according to the Insurance Commissioner’s office. There were complaints on a little over 1 percent of them. That’s a small percentage, but a small percentage of a big number can still be a big number.
There were 5,000 complaints and many of them have been settled, but some haven’t and if one of those is you or someone you know, it’s a problem.
Chris and Lacy Brantley of Larose are one of those ‘someones’ and their home is still a huge mess a year later. Several of the rooms in their home have been gutted and the floors are buckling. They’ve done some work and paid from their own pocket, but can’t afford the huge expense to have everything taken care of.
“I don’t want to live in this house,” said Lacy. “It’s very depressing.”
There’s another issue for them too. They have an 18-year-old son who is severely autistic and non-verbal and is used to a certain routine. In their home is a room where Peyton plays. He would continue to go to that room looking for the routine and normalcy it would provide.
“He went to open the door and it was all nasty and water and we had to gut that too. He kept trying to open it,” says his mother. “We had to lock the door. He didn’t understand and he would try to come get us.”
Peyton usually spends a lot of time with his brother Jacob, but he’s gone back to school at Nicholls State and Peyton has regressed.
“It has been a real struggle with him,” said Lacy. “He loves his own space. He has stomach problems. He always had stomach problems, but now it's worse. He'll make more accidents. At school, he's been having episodes where he's been punching himself. He can't express himself because he's non-verbal. He's more agitated now," says Lacy.
While their home is repaired, they’ll have to live in a camper and at the moment the battle with insurance has them at a standstill.
The Brantleys have spent some of their time helping others rebuild and have watched as neighbors’ homes have been repaired.
They said they are happy for them, and hope to soon have a rebuilding story of their own to tell.
“We just want to know something.”