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Property buyouts and Christmas dinner a good mix in flood-prone neighborhood

6 years 3 months 2 days ago Monday, December 25 2017 Dec 25, 2017 December 25, 2017 8:36 PM December 25, 2017 in News
Source: WBRZ

NEW ROADS – Monday may have been the final Christmas for residents of the Pecan Acres community.

The forty families who live there are set to get buyouts after decades of flooding. Since the neighborhood off Highway 10 in the northern area of New Roads was built in the 1970s, residents have continued to deal with flooding.

“I want to say about seven or eight times,” Crystal Boudreaux said Christmas Day.

Last holiday, she was at relatives home – displaced after a flood.

"It flooded last time during Christmas. We were not at home. We had to spend Christmas at a relative's house. Not being at home, it's tough," she said.

Boudreaux's neighborhood has a reputation – even a nickname: “Flood City.” The Advocate highlighted the same day of plans to build a new neighborhood for the residents using a patchwork of funding propelled by federal authorities.

"The flooding has been going on since we've been here. Over the years it's progressed and it's got higher and higher," she said.

Like many, she said she lives in fear – her children are frightened each time it rains.

"It's hard to try and console them, and let them know don't be afraid of the rain because they don't know from one day to the next if it rains that we're not going to flood or if we will flood.”

The buyouts Boudreaux and her neighbors were offered give them the chance to relocate to a brand new subdivision.

"We just want to put our families' in a better position where they can be healthier and happier and thrive," she said.  

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