NEW ORLEANS — A Lakeview couple is in shock and frustrated after their home took on more than 6 inches of flood water during Hurricane Francine Wednesday evening.
WWL Louisiana's Alyssa Curtis spoke with homeowners Keith and Desiree Durham as they gave her a tour of their flooded home on Polk and Memphis Street. They said their basement had completely flooded and they had just renovated their home.
"Everything was under control as far as the street flooding until it looked like the eyewall was over us and it started raining and the winds started blowing harder," said Keith. He said he noticed that the water on the street started to come up and the manhole in front of the house started to pop off from the pressure.
"Shortly after that I put up sandbags by the back door and put another barrier on the back door to try and block the water, but it came up so fast, so high that it just overtopped the sandbags and the barrier that I put up," Keith said.
Keith's wife Desiree said water started to seep in. They tried to mitigate it with towels and even scooping water into pots. "We're just in shock. We've done everything right," she said.
The couple said they have a sump pump, a generator and a major drainage project was just completed outside of their home.
"They told us 'Oh yeah this should help with flooding' ", Desiree said. "We're absolutely stunned that this has happened again."
Once they lost electricity the sump pump had no power. Keith said it seemed like the pumps on the streets stopped working.
"We already filled up the kitchen sink. We filled up the bathroom sink. We filled up the bathtub, upstairs, and filled up a second bathtub," Desiree said. "We were doing everything in our power just to bring the water level down," she explained.
About an inch or more of standing water filled their basement floor. Before, water topped the bottom steps, they said the entire downstairs had about 6 to 8 inches of water.
The couple stacked chairs, sofas, and other furniture on top of each other just to save what they could.
Desiree said the shower and toilet bubbled up and all of the water on the basement floor was sewer water.
The Durhams expressed their frustration with Sewerage and Water Board, saying they want answers.
"But we're expected to pay our taxes, our extremely high taxes on time," Desiree said. "We're expected to pay our insurance, extreme insurance rates and this is our reward."
"What are we to do as homeowners, any of us? Not just me but across the city," she said.
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