DENHAM SPRINGS - 69-year-old Larnell Mount lives in his gutted-out house on East Street in Denham Springs.

The house was all but destroyed in the 2016 flood.

"I came in here, threw out the old furniture. I gutted it out. It's been like this since. What is it like trying to stay in here with no power or anything like that? Terrible." Mount said.

The house also has no running water. Mount keeps his food and drinking water in ice chests.

It was his mother's home, where he has lived for more than 50 years.

"We moved in, in 1969, and I had my graduation party here," Mount said.

He had no flood insurance and cannot afford to fix the house or move to a better place.

The floodwater was up to the roof.

"The roof that's all you can see. Where it goes up square like that," Mount said.

Livingston Parish was the hardest-hit area in the 2016 flood, causing damage to 85% of all buildings in the parish.

An investor is buying flood-damaged houses on Mount's street, but he's not selling. Mount says this is the last place he plans to live.

"I ain't going. I'm going to die right here," Mount said.

Denham Springs has a buy program for vacant flood-damaged houses that started earlier this year.