By the time the water receded in August 2016, thousands of Livingston Parish homes had flooded, schools were damaged, and families across the parish had been displaced. Ten years later, local leaders remember the destruction, the long recovery, and the neighbors who helped hold their communities together.
A slow-moving storm system dumped 11.24 inches of rain on Baton Rouge on Aug. 12 alone. By the end of the multi-day deluge, Watson had recorded 31.39 inches, Livingston 25.52 inches, and Baton Rouge more than 19 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 7 trillion gallons of rain fell across South Louisiana, displacing tens of thousands of residents and damaging homes, businesses, schools, and public infrastructure. At least 13 people died statewide.
In some of the hardest-hit areas, the amount of rain had about a 0.1% chance of occurring in any given year, leading the storm to be described as a “1,000-year” rainfall event. Louisiana Economic Development estimated $8.7 billion in damage to residential and commercial property, excluding public infrastructure. Aon estimated total economic losses of between $10 billion and $15 billion.
For the 10th anniversary, The News interviewed Livingston Parish Public Schools Superintendent Jody Purvis, former superintendent Joe Murphy, Denham Springs Mayor Gerard Landry, and Walker Mayor Jimmy Watson about the flood’s effects, the years of recovery that followed, and efforts intended to reduce future flood risks.
Flooded schools
Purvis, who was the district’s high school supervisor in 2016, and Murphy, who was an assistant superintendent, recalled the disruption the flood caused for educators, students, and parents.
“It was devastating,” Purvis said. “It’s not like we’d ever experienced this. We didn’t have a playbook written for this.”
“You have to understand, we had 16 schools flooded,” Murphy said. “We’re talking about 15,000 kids that all of a sudden didn’t have a school to go to. They lost their homes, too. They had nowhere to go.”
District records counted 19 flood-damaged sites, including school campuses and support facilities. Sixteen of those sites reopened during the 2016-17 school year. Three schools, Denham Springs Elementary, Southside Elementary, and Southside Junior High, were considered total losses and had to be rebuilt.
“We had teachers who lost their homes, and then we called them back to work 21 days after the flood, and they showed up,” Murphy said. “It was remarkable that they believed enough in what we were trying to do, that the kids needed some kind of normalcy.”
Murphy described the district’s negotiations with the Federal Emergency Management Agency as tense. He said it took about a month to place displaced students in temporary arrangements, about seven months to return every student to a school campus, and six years to move the last students out of temporary facilities and into rebuilt schools.
Murphy said the district spent about $21 million on the initial cleanup of affected sites before officials could begin reopening them.
“For the amount of devastation that was there, it was a pretty miraculous turnaround for that to occur,” Purvis said.
The rebuilding resulted in new campuses for Denham Springs Elementary, Southside Elementary, and Southside Junior High.
“These are schools that the community can be very proud of,” Purvis said.
State test results released in 2017 showed that Livingston Parish remained among Louisiana’s top 10 school districts despite the disruption. Purvis said he does not believe the flood had a lasting effect on students’ academic performance.
“We looked at all curricula to determine what we could do to condense those curricula so that those students could still receive the foundations and standards of the curriculum,” Purvis said. “So [the flood] did not have a long-term impact on the students’ academics.”
Purvis said reopening schools also helped restore a measure of routine for families.
“We looked at the schools as being a source of strength for the community, and we felt that if we could get the schools up and going, some type of normalcy could occur for those students,” he said.
Few families untouched
For the four local leaders interviewed, the flood was also personal. Each either had water enter their own home or took in relatives who had been displaced.
Their experiences reflected the widespread disruption across Louisiana, where an estimated 146,000 homes were damaged, and about 11,000 people sought refuge in shelters at the height of the disaster.
Watson said more than 750 structures flooded in Walker. Of those, 60 to 70 could not be repaired, including 45 to 50 mobile homes. About 90% of the structures that could not be saved were residences, he said.
Murphy estimated that roughly 80% of Livingston Parish residents were directly affected by flooding.
“We didn’t understand the scope or magnitude of what that meant,” Murphy said. “It didn’t matter whether you had 3 inches or three feet of water; you flooded.”
What stayed with Murphy most was seeing piles of ruined possessions awaiting collection outside one neighborhood after another.
“People lost everything they owned, and some people didn’t have anyone to rely on,” Purvis said. “You know, when something happens, typically you can lean on your neighbor, but we were all in the same situation.”
Those interviewed repeatedly returned to the help residents provided one another during the flood and its aftermath.
Neighbors helping neighbors
Gerard Landry had been mayor of Denham Springs for one year and seven months when the flood struck.
In the immediate aftermath, Landry said he worked to help residents locate family members and identify routes through the floodwaters. He and city employees worked from milk crates in the Walgreens parking lot.
Landry said he handed his personal credit card to a city employee and told her to “run a tab for the city for all my employees” so workers could receive food and fresh water.
Residents also established informal collection points for clothing and other supplies. Landry recalled one person bringing 10-by-10-foot pop-up tents that provided dry places to store donated clothes, shoes, and other items.
During the interview, Landry pointed to the socks he was wearing and said he had received them through a church donation after the flood.
“People really and truly appreciate having clothes after losing them,” Landry said.
“The government helps you a little bit, but it’s really neighbors helping neighbors, friends helping friends, and family helping family,” he added.
Landry said many residents looked to him for guidance, but the city’s response depended on support from people throughout the community.
“I got to meet so many wonderful people,” Landry said.
Murphy said the willingness of residents to help one another was among the most remarkable parts of the flood.
“What I learned in 2016, it really wasn’t about the buildings,” Murphy said. “It was about the people in those buildings.”
“The flood was horrible, but it did show me just how wonderful the people in LP are,” he continued. “Don’t make it about me, because it wasn’t. It was about all of us.”
Reducing future flood risk
Since the flood, Walker has undertaken a series of drainage studies and projects intended to reduce the city’s vulnerability to future flooding.
Watson said citywide drainage studies were completed in 2017 on three of Walker’s most flood-prone watersheds. City officials then identified what Watson called the “low-hanging fruit that we could do ourselves.”
That work included replacing or adjusting 700 to 800 culverts, correcting their elevations, and cleaning drainage ditches throughout the city, Watson said.
The city later completed four or five larger drainage projects in individual areas, investing more than $100,000 in work intended to move water away from flood-prone locations, he said.
Walker also entered into a cooperative endeavor agreement with Gravity Drainage District 5 and Livingston Parish to clear approximately 19 miles of bayous and creeks between Middle Colyell and Colyell Bay. The work is intended to remove obstructions and improve water flow.
Watson said the drainage studies completed in 2017 allowed Walker to prepare projects in advance and pursue outside funding when it became available.
State Louisiana Watershed Initiative records list Walker’s Taylor Bayou Regional Improvements project at $8.85 million. Watson said having engineering and planning work already completed allowed the city to move the project forward more quickly.
Widening and drainage improvements along West Colyell remain unfinished. Watson said Walker is working with Livingston Parish on a plan for that area.
The work completed since 2016 cannot eliminate the possibility of another flood, but Watson said the city has continued addressing the drainage problems identified after the disaster.
“We didn’t sit back and wait,” Watson said.
