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Ascension homeowners cleaning up after Monday's heavy rain

3 years 8 months 1 week ago Tuesday, July 07 2020 Jul 7, 2020 July 07, 2020 7:33 PM July 07, 2020 in News
Source: WBRZ

ASCENSION – Some residents in Ascension Parish are still feeling the effects of heavy rainfall Monday. Ditches in neighborhoods couldn't handle the fast-rising water causing houses to flood.

Gonzales homeowner Christina Kercher said her family just purchased the house one month ago.

“We moved in. We didn't get flood insurance because everyone said we didn't need it. We're in flood zone x, it never floods and the house was built in the '70s."

Kercher says she woke up on Monday, stepped out of bed, and felt water. The water was coming from a ditch next to her house.

“It was overflowing. The water wasn't moving at all it was at a standstill,” Kercher said.

Kercher says it stayed that way until around noon.

“Then it started moving really quickly and in 15 to 20 minutes the water went down and the street was completely empty. So it worked fast when it worked.”

The Ascension Parish Communications Director told WBRZ two pumps in the parish were turned on at 8:30 Monday morning, but it takes a while before some homeowners who live upstream see movement in the water.

However, a drainage worker who visited Kercher’s home told her the pumps were turned on at 10 a.m.

“He told me water came in too fast all at once,” said Kercher. “We were warned the night before that we were going to have bad weather if we knew that they knew that. You’d think that if they knew a storm was coming they would have prepared a little more and started a little bit earlier.”

Kercher spent her Tuesday air-drying her daughter’s children's books, and using multiple dehumidifiers to dry out the three lowest rooms in her house that flooded.

“We have to remove the sheetrock. Some of it were going to have to remove part of the wall and replace it. There's a lot,” she said.

Kercher knows of two other homeowners who flood in her neighborhood.

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